Homely Scientist

I was catching up on Tara Smith’s Aetiology blog and caught the headline "New study shows HIV isn’t sexually transmitted?" (note question mark, please … Tara and I are on the same side of this issue).  While I can’t delve into her excellent rebuttal of the study, way out of my league and scientific comfort zone, what I can say is that this is one of the problems science and scientists face.  Here is a study that looks to most people and journalists to be pretty good.  The conclusion is pretty startling … wait HIV isn’t transmitted by sex?  Yahoo!  No.  That’s the problem.  Tara sets out why the study was flawed.  Why the conclusions aren’t accurate.  HIV is an STD.  Period.  This is where good science bloggers come in.  Can you imagine hearing this on the evening news?  Can you imagine how it might be reported?  I can and it scares me.

My mom and dad both have taught sex ed.  My mom still does.  Chesterfield County public schools.  Middle School through High School.  She’s on the front lines and something like this, boy it could undo a lot of hard work and teaching. (No, I wasn’t in school when my mom was teaching, but my siblings were … yes it was less than fun for them when her rotation brought her to their school).

I think you can see the problem here.  I am grateful to Tara for writing this up.  Flawed studies that reach these kinds of conclusions, boy they can really cause problems.  I hope that if this is reported, the journalist does their homework.

Tags: HIV, STDs, Aetiology, Tara Smith, science news

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