Perhaps I should say, doing Catholics one better on condoms. The Catholic Church has been telling people, for decades, that condoms don’t prevent HIV at all, and that they are against god. It seems Russia is prepared to outdo them on the misinformation score.
A Russian study actually blames condoms for the spread of HIV. The Russian Institute for Strategic Research (RISR), which was set up by the Kremlin in 2012, presented a report on Tuesday to Moscow’s city council that casts doubt over the validity of well documented statistics showing the spread of HIV in Russia.
It’s worth noting that one of stated goals of the RISR is “Family-based solutions as a strategy for overcoming depopulation.” Which is perhaps why it’s not a surprise to see that the study’s authors alluded to “traditional values” being the route to stopping the spread of HIV, blaming promiscuity and homosexuality for infections.
That certainly sounds familiar. Looks like the U.S. and Russia have a lot on common these days.
Tatyana Guzenkova, deputy head of the organization, presented the report, as according to the Russian daily newspaper Kommersant. It is also not a stretch to imagine this being used by the Kremlin to buttress its ongoing hostility towards Russia’s LGBT movement.
Like most things under the Putin regime, the RISR is hard to see as anything but government loyalists, especially because internal dispute about the study was quite vocal. The head of the Federal Center for fighting AIDS, Vadim Pokrovsky, for example, stressed the importance of focusing on condoms to reduce the spread of HIV.
Via Plus.
Many Russians, including Russian “scientists”, believe that there is no connection between HIV and AIDS and that the disease was started as a Pentagon conspiracy. Every time HIV comes up on national TV (which is about once a year at most) you’ll hear those views front and center.
Moar evidence that stuffing your head into a condom before sticking it up your arse does not result in less bullshite.
Alexander @ 1:
There are a number of people here that believe the same damn thing. It doesn’t make headlines like it used to, but nothing has changed those beliefs.
And guess who takes example from these fiiine people.
Condoms raise the risk of humans enjoying sex without the dire consequences. This is baaad.
@3:
HIV denialism is less organized than it used to be, the high turnover rate of activists the result of their applied philosophy backfiring in the form of rampant mortality from infection. Affordable antiretroviral medicines also robbed them of potential recruits. It takes a public disinformation campaign to sustain their message.