CNSNews is reporting that your tax dollars are being spent by the National Institutes of Health to study connections between drinking and homosexual sex in Argentina.
The study will send researchers to six bars in Buenos Aires to interview both patrons and proprietors in an effort to discover what it is about those bars that may encourage the risky behavior.
The study began on Sept. 30, 2008, and runs through Aug. 31, 2010. It already has cost taxpayers $198,776. By the time the project ends, it will have cost $403,902, according to NIH.
The grant, awarded to the New York State Psychiatric Institute, was provided by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the division of NIH that studies the effects of alcohol and alcoholism.
The study is just one of several that are "funded by the NIAAA to examine the relationship between drinking and the spread of HIV, including a study of tourism, prostitution, and HIV in the Dominican Republic and another study examining drinking and HIV among prostitutes in China."
The abstract of the grant says the study in Argentina 'might' help with similar situations in America. According to CNSNews,
"The study has six goals, including the collection of information on six specific bars in Buenos Aires; the appearance, of those bars, alcohol availability, patrons, and types of sexual behavior taking place. The study also seeks to identify which factors contribute to alcohol consumption and sexual behavior in the bars.
“The specific aims of this study are to … 2) identify factors that contribute to alcohol use and high-risk sexual behavior in the venues,” says the abstract.
Researchers will interview 48 of the men who patronize the bars, as well as the bar staff to gather information on the types of alcohol consumed and sexual behavior engaged in.
“Venue patrons will also undergo a brief quantitative assessment to gather descriptive data on sexual behavior and substance use.”
After discovering why men who drink in these bars have homosexual sex, researchers will then try to discover whether it is possible to conduct anti-HIV interventions and how to conduct those interventions."
Half a million dollars for just the single study! Why are we wasting U.S. tax dollars on such studies in the first place. Don't we already know that people who drink are more likely to engage in sex??? Why can't Argentina's government do their own study and HIV intervention?
This is insane. I can't help but wonder if the researchers just decided they needed a tax-payer funded trip to Argentina's bars so they created this 'study' to be able to do just that!
4 comments:
Maggie,
I was confused for a second here, thinking that the risky behavior was smoking, and that this is why the trip to Argentina was required.
You have to ask yourself if they really needed to go to Argentina to find drinking and risky behavior. I am sure that we could find it in Toledo. (Hey, maybe ben Konop can write Rep Kaptur and get the study moved.) After all, we could use the govt. money.
Just when you thought I've heard everything...
Reminds me of: "don't cry for me Argentina..." or is is now, "don't cry for me Chapaqua..."
This is an important study! We need to find out what those people are drinking thats making them turn gay! My guess is that a garbage fee would fix the problem since all those folks would move...it worked in Toledo! Have YOU seen any Argentine homosexuals drinking in Toledo lately?
I think that a much more meaningful and socially significant, politically sensitive study is: The Argentine Tango and Maui Wowie - Does smoking Hawaiian marijuana while drinking Italian wine and dancing the Argentine tango lead to an increased libido in red hot, experienced middle aged women who know what they want but are willing to settle for a little less, or is it all just an ugly rumor? My study seeks to address these important questions a month at a time and will only cost $300,000 (in US dollars) per year. I hope to have preliminary results in the first 18 months.
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