FDA Lifts Ban on Blood Donations by Gay Men ... Who Are Celibate

"Gee, can I really not have sex for a year for the privilege of donating blood?"

The New York Times reports that following up on a preliminary recommendation it made a year ago, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday that the agency would scrap a decades-old lifetime prohibition on blood donation by gay and bisexual men. The agency said it would continue to bar men who have had sex with men in the past year, however, noting that the measure was needed to keep the blood supply safe.

TRANSLATION: gay men -- aka actual human beings who have sex like all normal human beings should -- still cannot donate blood. I suppose Rome wasn't built in a day, but for all practical purposes this is meaningless lip service.

The Notorious HIV

Making HIV testing more accessible to the public seems like a great idea. But I agree with the FDA that a new home test for the AIDS virus being debated by an expert panel is cause for concern. False negatives are a problem. And surreptitiously obtaining saliva seems like it might make testing someone without their knowledge a real risk, a violation of privacy like no other . What do you think? Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

A vote is expected this afternoon. Read HERE.

UPDATE: The panel unanimously recommended sale of the over-the-counter test. The FDA still has to decide whether to approve it. Check out the panel's reasoning HERE.