Today is World AIDS day, and it’s important to take a minute to discuss HIV and AIDS since this blog addresses HIV/AIDS denialism.
While the the UN made a mistake overestimating world HIV/AIDS statistics (it is good news and not for the reasons cranks like) Estimates of new HIV transmission in the US are rising. This is bad news. At the same time you have HIV/AIDS denialists still persisting in spreading their nonsense, cranks like Michael Fumento spreading the misinformation that heterosexual transmission of HIV is a “myth”, and that the figures for Africa are a conspiracy by UNAIDS and WHO to get more money (he thinks 32 million is still too high and it’s more likely to be around 8 million).
Let’s go over some of the current data on HIV transmission, who is most at risk, why HIV/AIDS is still a problem in the US and worldwide, and why people like Fumento should keep their crank nonsense to themselves. As an added incentive, I’ll include a little email Fumento sent me a couple weeks ago at the bottom of the post. Before looking, guess which adjectives I receive, you might be pleasantly surprised.
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