If I can take the liberty of butting in...
By all means. While you were writing this I was reading 76 and writing my own reply.
That's good, because now I can check the validity of Perplexed's claim that the studies backing your CDC data used samples of relatively healthy, well-off people who lack some risk factors.
Ah I hope he wasn't claiming this, because they certainly were anything but healthy, with around 20% being hardcore IV drug users, 23% transfusion recipients, 10% hemophiliacs, and overall high rates of STD's.
I noticed the discrepancy about sexual history part but I didn't see how to factor it. They are relying on self-reporting to make any of these links.
To be explicit: the three studies you're citing (via the CDC) are based on one data set, and Perplexed's characterization of that data is essentially accurate.
Err, no, because his characterization is based on the idea that these couples were using condoms frequently, but the study specifically shows that is not the case - see my reply to Perplexed.
If you want to characterize this study, fine, but don't pretend that these are "regular couples regularly using condoms" - that is not what the study claims.
And finally this is the orthodox data. I mean if you want to reject ... ok .. and then we move to searching for other data which supports our relative positions . . . to the extent we have positions.
Perhaps it would be best to agree what the ideal study would be and precommit to that ideal in a sense? And then we could look for other studies that may be closer. Of course in the real world they will rarely be clear cut.
That's good, because now I can check the validity of Perplexed's claim that the studies backing your CDC data used samples of relatively healthy, well-off people who lack some risk factors.
Ah I hope he wasn't claiming this, because they certainly were anything but healthy, with around 20% being hardcore IV drug users, 23% transfusion recipients, 10% hemophiliacs, and overall high rates of STD's.
I quite agree that they weren't healthy in absolute terms; I just meant that they were relatively healthy for people with HIV. Compared to HIV+ people in much...
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