Condoms: The Research Must Be Wrong

There were two big things the whiners didn't like about the curriculum that was developed for MCPS last year. One, of course, was that it talked about gay people without saying how disgusting they are. The other thing was that video -- they just hated the fact that tenth graders would learn the proper way to choose and use condoms.

They keep making this big point that condoms are ineffective. The main argument they make is that condoms don't protect against all human papillomavirus (HPV). And that would be because that virus is spread by skin-to-skin contact of any kind, not just sex. You'd have to wrap your whole body in rubber to protect a hundred percent against HPV.

It's not just in Montgomery County. This "condoms don't work" thing is a mantra for all the Family Blah Blah Blah groups, all the nuts keep saying they don't work.

This Republican congressman, Tom Coburn, got the FDA to do some studies to prove they don't work. Those results are in. Here's the New York Times telling us about it:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 - Used correctly, latex condoms greatly reduce the risks of pregnancy and disease, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday in a 63-page report.

Prepared in response to a five-year-old law, the report is to form the basis for labels for condom packaging and provide more up-to-date information about effectiveness.

The federal drug regulators found that latex condoms are "highly effective" at preventing infection by H.I.V., gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis and hepatitis B, largely because all of these diseases are spread through penile contact.

But the agency noted that condoms seem to be less effective against genital herpes, human papillomavirus, syphilis and chancroid because lesions from these diseases may appear on skin not covered by condoms, the report said. F.D.A. Reports Reduced Risks With Condoms

Now, you know the reason the CRC and their colleagues don't want to teach students how to use a condom is that they're just sure this information will cause kids to run right out and start having wild sex. They'd rather risk an epidemic of STDs than to say anything about safe sex to a teenager.

This report is really about what kinds of warning labels should go on latex condom packages. I guess up till now there wasn't any warning, but these congressmen decided condoms are so dangerous they need a warning label. So if somebody thought condoms were the perfect prevention for everything, they just might pause to read the label, and find that they only protect the skin under the rubber. You can still catch diseases that are spread by sneezing, even if you wear a condom.

If you want to read the report it's HERE. Not the most exciting piece of literature you're likely to encounter, I'll tell you.

Here's something that drives me crazy, and you see this all the time these days. These self-righteous folks think that wanting something to be true makes it true. For instance: they want condoms to be ineffective. This congressman asked for this research to be done just to prove that what he thought was true was really true.

And then the FDA did the research and found out condoms do just what they're supposed to do, which was not what the congressman wanted to hear.

Could he have been wrong?

Of course not. That's not how it works. The research must be wrong.

But Senator Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who sponsored the legislation that produced the report, immediately criticized its contents.

"Today's misleading recommendations by the F.D.A. are the latest example where the agency has put the public at risk by providing inaccurate information about condoms," said Mr. Coburn, a physician who has said that condom labels provide exaggerated and dangerous reassurance that condoms protect against sexually transmitted disease.

There you go. See how that works?