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Is The Lancet affirming anything contrary to fact?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Ah, apologies.

For ref; I copied an article by Kevin Myers which made some good points; although I attached a disclaimer that I generally can't read anything he's written, but this article was quite interesting.

I just forgot about copyright issues.

In today's Tele, if anyone's interested

The Lancet needs to put forward the scientific evidence it refers to, otherwise it is really making the same mistake as the Pope.

Some of that evidence may not be as scientific as it is claimed to be.

The Lancet clearly hasn't read the recent remarks of Dr Edward Green, Director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Centre for Population and Development Studies, one of the world's foremost AIDS reserach institutes. He said "the best evidence we have supports the Pope's comments" and he went on to describe the "consistent association between greater availability and use of condoms and higher HIV-infection rates" which he said may be due in part to a phenomenon known as "risk compensation." Surely it's time to stop demonising the Pope and the Catholic Church on this issue and start having a measured and respectful debate.

To Bernards_Insight, John_Wright, GEOLATO, pauldos

Careful how you treat the scientific community. The Lancet is an independent journal, and opinions expressed in it will represent the current "majority" thinking on any particular subject, as well as the opinions of the Editors - all of whom will be very highly respected in their fields. With regards to any extra evidence - I would suggest you get a subscription and read some of the articles published in the journal (e.g. "AIDS: lessons learnt and myths dispelled" for example)- it is likely that you will have a more informed opinion upon doing this.

With regards to Edward Green - it is perfectly common for people to disagree with the current opinion. Sometimes this is because they a re visionary (Newton, Einstein) sometimes it is because they are blinkered in some way. I would suggest that based on Prof. Green's publication record he might have some sort of agenda clouding his judgement - although I could be wrong.

With regards to journalist's opinion given in daily press as contrasted with the opinion given by the Lancet - you would be much better giving more credence to the latter as (1) the authors are far more likely to have a wider scientific knowledge and (2) if a large number of the scientific community disagree, a rebuttal will be issued (not often seen in the daily press).

"When the Pope was on the plane that would bring him to Cameroon, he granted a press interview on board the plane itself. This interview was limited to six questions, of which the fifth was the controversy posed by the journalist of France 2, Philippe Visseyrias:

"Holiness, among the many evils that afflict Africa, in particular is the spread of AIDS. The position of the Catholic Church on the way to fight against it is often considered unrealistic and ineffective. Will you address this subject during your trip?"

Here is the Holy Father's complete answer:

"I would say the contrary. I think that the most efficient reality, the most present at the front of the struggle against AIDS, is precisely the Catholic Church, with her movements, with her various organizations. I am thinking of the Sant'Egidio Community that does so much, visibly and also invisibly, for the struggle against AIDS, of the Camilliani, of all the sisters who are at the disposition of the sick.

"I would say that this problem of AIDS can't be overcome only with publicity slogans. If there is not the soul, if the Africans are not helped, the scourge can't be resolved with the distribution of condoms: on the contrary, there is a risk of increasing the problem. The solution can only be found in a double commitment: first, a humanization of sexuality, that is, a spiritual and human renewal that brings with it a new way of behaving with one another; and second, a true friendship, also and above all for those who suffer, the willingness -- even with sacrifice and self-denial -- to be with the suffering. And these are the factors that help and that lead to visible progress.

"Because of this, I would say that this, our double effort to renew man interiorly, to give spiritual and human strength for correct behavior with regard to one's body and that of another, and this capacity to suffer with those who suffer, to remain present in situations of trial. It seems to me that this is the correct answer, and the Church does this and thus offers a very great and important contribution. We thank all those who do this."

(Source: Zenit)

atsbence you have posted the "doctored" version of the pope's comments. The reporters on the plane recorded his comments and the tape exists. The vatican spin doctors released this doctored text which plays down the Aids and condoms bit of the quote. They changed the word from "exacerbates" to "risks". Read the Lancet editorial for more about what they did to the actual words.

Is "exacerbates" a German word?

Augustine, You may find the video here in Italian:



The above translation seems to adequately transmit the content of the Pope's massage.

atsbence the pope's words in italian have been doctored to gve the impression that he did not say that condoms make the problem of aids worse. that's what he said.

Only in Italian.

So what did he say?

He said "aumentano il problema":
"they enlarge the problem"