That's true if you live in a society where contraception is culturally acceptable. If you don't then condoms aren't readily available, and the spread of HIV is still a problem.

That's a society/culture, not humanity.

Then I guess the culture is the actual threat. Just like the anti-vaccination culture.

Now, slightly off-topic, thinking about this I developed my own conspiracy theory: anti-vax is spread as a way to enforce a kind of natural selection.

Abstinence is also an extremely good way to prevent contracting STDs. Imperfect, of course (there's still the risk of rape, and of bloodborne contagion), but remarkably good.

Abstinence is probably even less culturally acceptable than contraception, pretty much universally.

Chastity (i.e. having sex only with one's spouse) is less reliable than abstinence, since one's spouse may cheat, but it's also a very good way to prevent the spread of STDs. But even chastity is often culturally unacceptable, whether for both sexes (as in the U.S. today) or for men (as in many places, both historically & in the present).

It's sad — STDs could be eliminated, but … people make mistakes.

> But even chastity is often culturally unacceptable, whether for both sexes (as in the U.S. today)

You are saying that in the USA today, that "having sex only with one's spouse" (ie - your definition of "chastity") is "culturally unacceptable" here?

I'm curious on what you base this on?

I am pretty certain that being unfaithful to your spouse, or even "significant other" is still considerably frowned upon in the U.S...?

That is - I don't think it's "accepted" culturally - just tolerated (by the wider secular U.S. society). Maybe that's what you are getting at...?

I think for the most part our culture would rather those who are married to remain honest with each other, to uphold the vows they took when they were married. There is also another smaller part of our culture (of which I am in agreement with) that would say as long as all parties are aware and consenting to it - ie, open marriages - that is ok as well.

But I don't think our culture here in the U.S. completely condones unfaithfulness...?

Maybe I am wrong? Certainly something to think about; which is also why I ask...

Abstinence is as effective as a New Years resolution.

Abstinence isn’t a complete and utter failure because it’s socially unacceptable: it’s a complete and utter failure because people want to have sex. The answer isn’t trying to get people to stop having sex. For most people, that’s like asking them to stop breathing. The answer is better education and free or cheap and easily available contraceptives. And since even the best and easiest of contraceptives will occasionally fail or not be used, continuing research into STD vaccines and providing easily accessible options to women to terminate pregnancy.

Further, promoting abstinence and chastity while not promoting other options, and especially when combined with the often corresponding anti-choice politics, disproportionately and unfairly impacts the poor and uneducated, particularly the women.

I would go so far as to say it’s cruel to continue to promote abstinence today.

Monogamy is also an effective preventative strategy.

Yes, as long as your partner is doing it correctly too.

Many tragic cases involve women being infected by their cheating, promiscuous husbands.

And vice versa. We had a very infamous case of it in my country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Mol A few women brought HIV back home catching it from that "activist".

Incredibly disappointing (and predictable, as an "anti-racist, anti-fascist activist") that Mol played the race card when confronted about his HIV status.

He called the Polish people racist, and he called the Polish police racist.

What a monster.

Because only men cheat, right?

Obviously not and I did wonder about phrasing in a more gender neutral way.

However, looking at some data:

https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/risk/estimates/riskbehaviors.html - women are at twice the risk of men in heterosexual relationships.

https://ifstudies.org/blog/who-cheats-more-the-demographics-... - men are a bit less than twice as likely to cheat.

So, risk to women would seem to be, say, about three times as much at risk. And that is not counting the additional and heavily lop-sided risk of anal intercourse for women, but I'm not sure how to quantify that.

So my gut feeling that this is something women suffer from more is potentially backed up by evidence, but not to such a disproportionate degree that my original phrasing was accurate. I'm too late to edit, but happy to consider my earlier comment rephrased with these stats.

celibacy is even better!

Wrong on two counts. First because a monogamous couple has a virtually zero chance of contracting the virus and second because celibacy is evolutionarily indistinguishable from death.

Don't delude yourself, even the monogamous couple has to go to the hospital or could, via sheer bad luck, have contracted it from a former partner (I doubt you were talking only about lifelong monogamy).

And the second comment, I don't even know what to make out of it - living also leads to death, where does evolution come into play in this discussion? By your logic, someone who gets infected and later dies from AIDS, but has had a child is better off than someone who never had kids. What kind of mental gymnastics is that?

I was talking about lifelong monogamy. This should be obvious from the "virtually impossible" descriptor. This is just basic logical reasoning.

> someone who gets infected and later dies from AIDS, but has had a child is better off than someone who never had kids. What kind of mental gymnastics is that

It's the kind of "mental gymnastics" where they propagate their genes and a celibate person doesn't. This isn't hard to understand so please don't be willfully obtuse.

Problem with this sort of moral policing is if your spouse is/becomes abusive then you can't leave them and if they die young you can't ever date/marry again.

Lifelong ends with death. And it's not moral policing, I'm not advocating armed men to force people to not be promiscuous. I'm simply stating a fact based on sound scientific reasoning. Because promiscuous people are the reservoir for STDs, not having sex with promiscuous people, which is isomorphic to lifelong monogamy, is a highly effective way to avoid STDs.

The issue is that you might think that you are in a monogamous relationship while you are being cheated on, and this is not that rare.

> celibacy is evolutionarily indistinguishable from death

So? Also, this is not really correct, sperm donations are a thing after all.

> So?

If your solution requires celibacy, the people who ignore you will be 100% of the population after one generation.

(Your “Also” seems to be a separate and valid point)

I was joking man.