Do condoms stop the spread of HIV? McCain: "You've stumped me."

onelongsong wrote:

condoms break; leak; and are only a band-aid to make you feel safer. ask a nurse or EMT about getting a little body fluid on their skin.

Here is proof positive that we need more education regarding condoms. For various medical reasons, I couldn't use the pill, IUD or diaphragm, so I used nothing but condoms for about 25 years. Never had one break, never had one leak, never got pregnant, never got a disease. They work if you know what you're doing, so why not teach kids how to use them?

Ahnimus wrote:

If they are misused. Condoms have a shelf life of like 3 months or something. And of course they are going to break once out of every five million times. You could just let kids have unprotected sex instead of educating them on the use of contraceptive. They are going to have sex regardless of what you say. So the responsible thing to do is educate them on contraceptive.

This is one of those situations where you need to realize that it's beyond your immediate control, all you can do is influence people. You can outright ban sex in all of America, but people are still going to do it. Take the responsible, mature approach and influence children by educating them.

When is our country going to fucking understand this? It's really unbelievable. I mean, conservatives, and whoever else have the right to believe that people should not be having pre-marital sex, or that using contraceptives goes against whatever religious beliefs they have, but they have to understand that there is nothing objectively wrong, or illegal about either. And that they can tell people all they want not to do it, but they should still offer education on how to do it safer, because its better than not using contraceptives at all.

sweet adeline wrote:

its a little misleading, the question was whether u.s. tax dollars should be spent to prevent AIDS in places like africa, so its a little more complicated given that it is basically foreign aid.

i'm not making excuses for mccain, obviously he looks like a dumbass, but the question was a little more complicated than just 'do condoms stop the spread of hiv?", at least how i understand it from the article.

he's still looks stupid though.

That was the initial question, but it seems to me like one of the reporters, or whoever, kept going, and just asked straight up if McCain thought that condoms helped prevent HIV. And some how McCain was brilliant enough to respond with an "I don't know".

sweet adeline wrote:

its a little misleading, the question was whether u.s. tax dollars should be spent to prevent AIDS in places like africa, so its a little more complicated given that it is basically foreign aid.

i'm not making excuses for mccain, obviously he looks like a dumbass, but the question was a little more complicated than just 'do condoms stop the spread of hiv?", at least how i understand it from the article.

he's still looks stupid though.

The initial question was about AIDS in Africa, and I didn't think he bungled that one too badly. It was the follow-up questions where he looked totally clueless. The exact question was "Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?” and his response was “You’ve stumped me.” The reporter came back with “I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it?” and that was where he had to ask Brian to go find out what his position was.

yosi wrote:

That was the initial question, but it seems to me like one of the reporters, or whoever, kept going, and just asked straight up if McCain thought that condoms helped prevent HIV. And some how McCain was brilliant enough to respond with an "I don't know".

That's the fundamental problem with polling.

"Do condoms stop the spread of AIDS?"

No

"Do condoms prevent the spread of HIV?"

Yes

"Should the U.S. provide support for the AIDS crisis in Africa?"

Yes

onelongsong wrote:

i have 4 kids; 1 still born; and 1 aborted child thanks to condoms breaking. they do help if you don't kiss the person. but if you're doing it right; you can't trust condoms.

I was always taught you had to use BC and condoms toegther for it to be 98% effective.

onelongsong wrote:

i have 4 kids; 1 still born; and 1 aborted child thanks to condoms breaking. they do help if you don't kiss the person. but if you're doing it right; you can't trust condoms.

See, condom education could have helped you

Well, I've always used condoms, except with my long-term GF, just used Coitus Interruptus. I have no kids, but I got some great sex education in high-school.

hippiemom wrote:

Here is proof positive that we need more education regarding condoms. For various medical reasons, I couldn't use the pill, IUD or diaphragm, so I used nothing but condoms for about 25 years. Never had one break, never had one leak, never got pregnant, never got a disease. They work if you know what you're doing, so why not teach kids how to use them?

Exactly.

We had a religious nut come yell at our the students at my school about what she claimed was 'sex education'. Turned out to be a bunch of lying (a few things inparticular that were so wrong they made my friends and I simultaneously turned to eachother with the 'what the hell is she talking about' look on our faces) and an abstinance only sermon.

Some things she told us...

- Condoms NEVER (she emphasized NEVER and said it more than once) work and don't protect you against any diseases or pregnancy.

- 4/5 sexually active kids in our school have contracted chlemydia (sounds like I quoted her incorrectly,.. which I thought at first... but then I went around fact checking and about 30-40 people all heard it too).

etc...

religion needs to stay the fuck out of our school system.

That sounded like an answer Bush would have given.

The use of condoms will prevent STD's most of the time, but they are not 100% guaranteed like abstinence. That's a fact.

Without getting religious here, I do care where our tax dollars go in the aid of African nations. There are studies out there that point out that HIV is actually spreading MORE in those African nations that have the most condom aid.

http://www.crisismagazine.com/june2006/browder.htm

So if there are facts against it. Why not use a different approach?? Here at home may be a different story, I believe it is up to each individual/family on how to view this issue.