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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!bbnccv!bbncc5!sdyer
From: sdyer@bbncc5.UUCP (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.motss,net.med
Subject: Re: AIDS: beyond high-risk groups
Message-ID: <290@bbncc5.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Sep-85 18:11:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: bbncc5.290
Posted: Tue Sep 17 18:11:49 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Sep-85 07:02:49 EDT
References: <1557@bbncca.ARPA> <2192@ukma.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 26
Xref: watmath net.motss:2076 net.med:2408

There is nothing wrong with following the practices Walt recommends.  As he
says, it can't hurt and may be helpful.  The only reservation is for those
who follow his logic to its ultimate conclusion: that by following such
"common-sense" prescriptions, one need not fear exposure to the virus, and
hence drop other precautions.  For some gay men, this means once again
indulging in frequent, promiscuous sex practices which involve the exchange
of fluids which may contain the virus.  This is imprudent, to say the
least, but by Walt's theory, it is just fine.  This is the only reason he
is being "blasted", for he is confidently predicting the outcome of
exposure to a virus about which still little is known experimentally.
One wonders what he'd say to a formerly "healthy" athlete who is now
dying of KS.

The trouble is, one cannot predict the state of one's immune system
directly from diet and exercise and alpha brainwaves.  There is no evidence
that such behaviors provide absolute protection against any kind of
infectious disease, despite his confident assurances.  He is dealing in
black and white when all of us are little real numbers along some still
poorly characterized line of susceptibility.  There is only one black and
white fact on which we'll both agree: don't come into contact with the
virus (exposure to blood, semen and serus products) and you'll never have
to worry about AIDS.
-- 
/Steve Dyer
{harvard,seismo}!bbnccv!bbncc5!sdyer
sdyer@bbncc5.ARPA


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