Actor Charlie Sheen revealed his HIV status this week. The last time we checked, having sex while positive was no longer a felony, drugs and alcohol caused false positives, and kissing on TV didn’t transmit “HIV.” Why do the media assume otherwise?

 

“How Positive Are You” co-host Elizabeth Ely looks at the Sheen revelations from a new angle by asking a different set of questions.

Alleging he had been blackmailed for several years, Sheen appeared on the Today show apologizing for the over-the-top lifestyle that led to his firing from sitcom Two and a Half Men nearly five years ago. Not much about the ensuing news coverage makes any sense, scientifically or otherwise:

• Lawyers point out the felony Sheen risks being charged with for having sex without disclosing his test result, yet the Gutierrez court decision effectively reduced these to misdemeanors many months ago;
• “HIV tests” are still not validated back to a gold standard of finding virus under an electron microscope (a service which will soon be available);
• Sheen says he paid up to $10 million to blackmailers, and these might lead him to accept highly paid drug-endorsement contracts to offset his losses (echoes of former basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson);
• Too much of this story echoes the Rock Hudson drama of 1984-85, with blackmail, hard drinking and drugging, and speculation about spreading HIV to a TV co-star;
• He claims he is taking AIDS drugs, but this fact is not verified; furthermore, “undetectable” blood levels of HIV are under illogical, inaccurate “viral load” testing;
• His physician isn’t an infectious disease specialist but rather a publicity-seeking reality-TV doctor; and
• Sheen is a well-known questioner of received wisdom on other topics, for instance, the events of September 11, 2001 – why not this one?

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