DC Condom Controversy Continues

Yesterday's article on the DC Department of Health Condom Distribution program is spreading like wildfire thanks to an AP story that went around the country and numerous blog posts including: Big Head DC, POZ, and DCist. And as the story grows, the inaccuracies in the original article are being expanded on and continue to grow. Big Head DC uses the headling "DC Government Gives Out Condoms Wrapped in Paper". In reality, they are the same foil-style packages used by many condom manufacturers. The Consumerist uses the headline "Washington D.C. Gives Away Uncool, Defective Condoms". Again, not really true. The Post article suggests this, but doesn't offer any substantive evidence that the condoms are 'defective'. In reality, we have every reason to believe DC Condoms are effective in preventing HIV and no evidence has been presented to contradict this. Let's be clear ... The condoms are ugly and difficult to market. DC would have been much better off hiring an ad agency to create a cool condom like the now famous NYC condom. BUT we have every reason to believe DC Condoms are effective in preventing HIV and no evidence has been presented to contradict this. Further ... It's clear that the HIV AIDS Administration (HAA) is giving out misleading numbers about how many condoms have actually been distributed in the past eight months. The article in the post said 650,000. In reality, the number is much, much lower. Why? Because HAA is counting all the condoms they have given to local agencies, without regard to whether or not they have been handed out to actual people. Boxes and Boxes of these 'distributed' condoms are actually in storage at local organizations. BUT we have every reason to believe DC Condoms are effective in preventing HIV and no evidence has been presented to contradict this. And Finally ... It's clear that the Condom Distribution program is a monumental failure. I've said it before, I'll say it again. New York City launched their new condom campaign about the same time we launched ours. New York City manages to distribute between three and five million condoms each month, while HAA has been struggling to distribute one million condoms over eight months. Quite frankly, it's a joke. BUT we have every reason to believe DC Condoms are effective in preventing HIV and no evidence has been presented to contradict this. Still, the urban legend has taken on a life of it's own. The HIV/AIDS Administration would be smart to only by brand-name condoms for the forseeable future.