Horace Heffner writes: > If 98 percent of the population is protected from a fatal disease then at > most 2 percent will die. When a person has been effectively innoculated he > is protected *no matter how many exposures* he experiences.
Ah, I see your point. Actually, you are partly wrong. Many vaccines gradually "wear out." There is a big debate now about how long smallpox vaccines remain effective. You are using the wrong analogy. As I said in another message, you should compare condoms to seat belts. Or wahing hands, pasteurization -- or any health care technique that has to be applied every time. Also, you have to remember that the number of exposures is strictly limited. The number of times the average Japanese male can engage in risky sex in a lifetime is relatively low. He is busy; prostitutes are expensive; his wife may get fed up. If condoms fail once per thousand uses (which would not surprise me), then the average Japanese businessman with loose morals is more likely to die from a lighting strike than AIDS. No matter how much you encourage him, he cannot afford the time or the money to engage in sex often enough to overcome such odds. Take away the condoms and Japan would be in the same boat as the U.S., with an infection rate 150 times higher. If we are talking about a Japanese yakuza with $50,000 in stolen money and a suitcase full of drugs visiting south east Asia, the odds are totally different. Remember, the mechanical failure has be drastic, including even the viricide. As someone else here pointed out, advanced condoms do a pretty good job protecting the male from disease even when they tear or come off. Also bear in mind that Japanese males are all literate, educated, and they follow the directions on the box, unlike Third World people. They are much less likely to make a stupid mistake, and stupid mistakes are the main cause of failure. - Jed
