# AIDS Vaccine Redux; science or sociology the cure?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aids-vaccine-redux-science-or-sociology-the-cure/118507>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 11, 2002, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aids-vaccine-redux-science-or-sociology-the-cure/118507 "2002-07-11T21:50:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aids-vaccine-redux-science-or-sociology-the-cure/118507/21 "2002-07-13T04:03:09Z")

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**Tars** … _took_? 🙂 Of course you mean, “Is taking”.

And everyone knows all muppets live the fast life. They are slaves to their masters’ desires.

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**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aids-vaccine-redux-science-or-sociology-the-cure/118507/22 "2002-07-13T05:54:56Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Tars Tarkas \*  
> \*\*Hmmm… will Brutus condemn the new Muppet with AIDS for living the fast life?
> 
> And we are spending lots of money on education, as well as South Africa making deals to receive condoms for testing to help get more rubbers for the people from Germany. But behaivor changes will not happen overnight, look how long the civil rights movement took. \*\*

I gladly condemn that homo-slut muppet. I bet Oscar gave him (her?) HIV. Never screw a monster that lives in a trashcan (Seasame Street’s way of saying that Oscar is a junky, not a grouch).

I am not saying that behavioral changes are 100% effective. But until (if ever) there is a vaccine or cure, behavioral changes are the only thing anyone can do. Spending billions on something that may or may not ever work is silly when simple behavioral changes can greatly stem the growth in HIV infections. Spend a few billion on education.

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**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aids-vaccine-redux-science-or-sociology-the-cure/118507/23 "2002-07-13T06:04:52Z")

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Interesting. I read the original article relating to the HIV+ muppet too, and I don’t recall any mention being made of all about any implied means by which the virus had been acquired.

Rather, IIRC, the purpose of introducing the character was to address issues relating to every day contact with HIV+ people.

But then perhaps I’m not as good at reading between the lines as **Brutus**.

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**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aids-vaccine-redux-science-or-sociology-the-cure/118507/24 "2002-07-13T06:09:46Z")

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And **Brutus** , short of everyone in the sub-Saraha refusing to ever have sex or accept what limited medical treatment might be offered to them, I’m not sure how you perceive your suggestions as involving “simple behavioural changes”.

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2002, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aids-vaccine-redux-science-or-sociology-the-cure/118507/25 "2002-07-14T15:07:02Z")

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“Apparently it is next to impossible to get many people there to change behaviour”

I think it’s pretty much the same in the US too:  
““AIDS is far from over in the United States,” says Carlos del Rio  
of Emory University in Atlanta. Statistics presented revealed that HIV  
continues to plague the gay community. A study of over 2,000 gay men  
ages 23 to 29 in Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York,  
and Seattle found that  
the virus infected 7 percent of white men, 15  
percent of Hispanics, and 30 percent of African-Americans. Only a  
third of those infected knew they had HIV.”

They said that education was the key in this article.  
(For the rest of the article: U.S. News & World Report, Feb. 19,2001)

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