Public health experts, including those long involved in HIV prevention, recognize that a proportion of all people are likely to ignore or reject categorical mandates about sexual behavior-whether they involve using condoms or limiting contact because of social distancing norms. “People are starting to think about a return to engaging ,” he said, “and are asking me, are there ways they can remain safe” from COVID-19?Ĭoncerns about sexual intimacy during an epidemic are universal and not limited to gay men, of course.
“They say, ‘I haven’t had any contact since I saw you last, so there’s no need to do any STD tests,’” said Klausner, an adjunct professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases at UCLA.īut attitudes among these patients are shifting, Klausner has noticed, now that California and other states are loosening policies on social distancing. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, he said, many patients have so dramatically changed their sexual behavior that they shrug off the need for routine screenings for sexually transmitted diseases. Jeffrey Klausner, a primary care physician in Los Angeles, has treated gay men for decades.
