'I'm Not Ashamed Of My Opinions'

Talk to me about condoms.

I'm a realist. I would not ever recommend to one of my patients to have sex with someone with HIV with a condom. Because I know the statistics. They break. They slip. What we've done is not told the whole truth about condoms. ... My position is, if you can get people to use condoms perfectly, and you can make sure they use them, and tell them what the risks are, and tell them the breakage rates and slippage rates are, it's a good strategy.

There's no consensus there. Almost everybody else disagrees with you about this.

I don't think you should ever educate anyone on condoms unless you specifically teach them how to use them, and what their failure rates are. Anywhere else in medicine, if we fail to give informed consent, we're liable. The assumption is, people won't know what to do with the information. And that is the most arrogant position I have ever seen.

Then you support only abstinence?

I believe that monogamy is the answer to HIV infection. I understand that people think I'm not a realist in this area. But I'm monogamous, and there are hundreds and hundreds of millions of people out there that are monogamous.