I admit I am no statistician, so I might embarrass myself here. Nearly half of all Americans are married (48%) While that certainly doesn't reduce the risk of STD to zero, it would provide a pretty decent degree of safety. The "Average American" doesn't worry about this stuff.
Homosexuals who have sex with strangers in public restrooms have more to worry about. But they are not the Average American.
That was why they paraded around the relatively small number of truly innocent AIDS victims (from tainted bold transfusions) when AIDS was spreading; they knew most people wouldn’t relate to it otherwise.
Very disturbing there is a push to allow perverts to donate blood and serve in the military (think of the medics); purely political decisions, with disastrous consequences.
Imagine troops in a hot zone asking for an airdrop of AZT...
Who knew, that risky promiscuous anonymous sex activity , puts one at higher risk of diseases? Hopefully those at risk heed these warnings.
That 6% number is way high. It’s based on 20MM new cases of STD per year, not on the number of new people catching something. So that 20MM number includes people who get several diseases, or other diseases more than once, counting each case as a ‘new’ person. So cut that number in half, if not smaller. Also, not everyone has the same amount of sex, some are way more active (not every positive encounter leads to a positive transmission). Some are also more spread around, greatly increasing their chances of running into someone who’s infected.
Even if we ignore all those factors, saying everyone has a 6% chance of catching something each year, is wrong. The proper stat would be that 6% of the populace catches something each year, not that each member has a 6% chance. Details do matter.