First off, you keep writing PReP, it's PrEP. No big deal, but it's hard to keep ignoring!
Yes, PrEP _allows_ (makes) many people to feel safe having sex without a condom. Yes, this shift can have consequences for the transmission of other diseases. It's not hard to acknowledge that. It follows completely that if there's a new outbreak, its transmission will be accelerated because people are having sex without condoms. I am not following your other postings on here, so I can't say if you think I haven't acknowledged those things, or what. I think you're talking about other people on this thread, in which case, why? Maybe something in how your expressing your thoughts feels really radical to you, but to be you've been expressing pretty obvious ideas. I can't tell if you got to this point after a previous disagreement, or if this is your baseline feeling about PrEP, but I will say if you just focus on the negative aspects of things that are already stigmatized, you're perpetuating stigma! And my push back on that doesn't mean the negative aspects aren't true (though we should always be dubious). It means I don't like your framing of the situation.
Disease is the cost of doing business. Getting down to business? You didn't like the handshake analogy, but think about all the different things we can do to mitigate the spread of disease. We do a lot of them! But we also share buses, go to big events, and we also have sex with each other. It's not wrong to do those things without worry. And it doesn't mean the risk isn't there, it just means you don't worry about it. It rubs me the wrong way that you decide what's foolish to worry about and not.
I don’t think I’m being radical at all, and I’m glad you agree with my points. If you read my original post, then you should agree with it. But there are quite a lot of replies against, and many disagreed that it would lead to less condom usage.
I don’t, however, believe I’m perpetuating stigma. I’m pointing out that new (to the world) strains of HIV are a perfect example of what worries me about a generation that feels a false sense of security. I’ve already watched previous generations die off, and I don’t want to see lessons lost. If you want to call my concern stigmatizing, we’ll then I wear that with pride.
We learned in the 80s/90s that safe sex meant condom use, and that did have a tangible impact. For those particularly at risk PrEP is great because condoms break. Abstinence is the only thing that’s 100% and it’s unrealistic. But removing condom usage because we think there’s no more diseases to worry about beyond HIV to me is foolish, and the evidence of the history of epidemics validates that.
Yes, PrEP _allows_ (makes) many people to feel safe having sex without a condom. Yes, this shift can have consequences for the transmission of other diseases. It's not hard to acknowledge that. It follows completely that if there's a new outbreak, its transmission will be accelerated because people are having sex without condoms. I am not following your other postings on here, so I can't say if you think I haven't acknowledged those things, or what. I think you're talking about other people on this thread, in which case, why? Maybe something in how your expressing your thoughts feels really radical to you, but to be you've been expressing pretty obvious ideas. I can't tell if you got to this point after a previous disagreement, or if this is your baseline feeling about PrEP, but I will say if you just focus on the negative aspects of things that are already stigmatized, you're perpetuating stigma! And my push back on that doesn't mean the negative aspects aren't true (though we should always be dubious). It means I don't like your framing of the situation.
Disease is the cost of doing business. Getting down to business? You didn't like the handshake analogy, but think about all the different things we can do to mitigate the spread of disease. We do a lot of them! But we also share buses, go to big events, and we also have sex with each other. It's not wrong to do those things without worry. And it doesn't mean the risk isn't there, it just means you don't worry about it. It rubs me the wrong way that you decide what's foolish to worry about and not.