WARNING: DRINKING CAUSES AIDS!

Here’s something that ought to amaze and astound everyone. A scientific study has reached a dramatic conclusion:

Alcohol fuels the desire to engage in unsafe sex.

Got that? Science is catching up to the centuries-old popular wisdom that alcohol lowers inhibitions. I used to think that was one of those truisms. Common sense, even. Now it’s termed “science,” which these days no longer means white-coated men in laboratories; “science” means policy determinations that something must be done

They found that “an increase in blood alcohol level of 0.1 mg/mL increased the indicated likelihood of engaging in risky sex by five percent.” So of course there are now public policy implications:

IMPLICATION: HIV/AIDS prevention programs should include efforts to reduce heavy drinking, which in itself also weakens the immune system. As lead author Juergen Rehm, puts it in a statement: “Drinking has a causal effect on the likelihood to engage in unsafe sex, and thus should be included as a major factor in preventive efforts for HIV.”

How utterly condescending. Nothing like having a busybody bureaucrat inquire into your drinking habits under the guise that he is preventing you from getting AIDS.

And perhaps there should be new warnings on all alcoholic beverage labels.

DRINKING CAUSES AIDS.

Using similar methodology, the public policy community could declare that drinking “causes” people to do almost anything that might be bad for them or for society, such as engaging in violent acts, making bad investments or inappropriate career decisions, engaging in discriminatory conduct, or even deliberately staying out too long in cold weather!

I feel so much safer knowing that science will protect us from causation.