Ridiculous Headline Of The Day
Britons' 'shocking' ignorance on Aids
Survey shows 20% think victims have only themselves to blame
Sixty per cent said they would have more sympathy for someone infected with HIV through a blood transfusion than from promiscuous sex. "This is particularly shocking as it shows that people are making judgments and assigning 'blameworthiness' in their response to the disease. Aids doesn't discriminate - people do," said Patricia Hindmarsh of Marie Stopes International who commissioned the survey of 2,000 representative adults with Interact Worldwide.
To attribute shocking ignorance to a country based on what 20% of a poll's respondents think strikes me as unfounded. As for the underlying premise, if one person gets infected because a hospital screws up a transfusion and another gets infected because of deliberately exposing oneself to risky sex or shared needles - I suspect most people would have more sympathy for the first one (while still feeling sympathy for the second). Truly shocking indeed...
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