During 2020, it was crazy to be in the middle of a pandemic, fearing a virus that no one had ever heard of, reminding many of us of 1983, when AIDS started killing people. PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is a medication that is used for individuals that do not have HIV and want to prevent getting in contact with this virus. Some people will go out on the street and purchase PrEP medication to take once a week; however, that is not the way that it should be taken. Individuals that decide to take PrEP need to go to a physician and get tested for HIV, have a negative HIV test, discuss sexual practices and risk, and come to the clinic every three months for the same process. This is actually an opportunity where individuals have even more opportunity to discuss their sexual risk and possibilities to be even safer when coming into contact with HIV and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).

COVID-19 is much like HIV, it can kill no matter the race, age, socio-status, or religion, and in the first month of 2021, across the U.S we lost 400,000 lives. Health reports, politics, governors, and news have been encouraging everyone to stay six feet away and to always have your mask on. These harm reduction ideas keeping us safe while we all figure out this disease and how to stay as safe as possible. Most people have decided to just stay home and isolate themselves from everyone else. This has created mental health challenges, domestic violence, anxiety, isolation, job loss, stress over care of children at home, and the challenges of having everyone in the same house (if you live like that).

In Oct. 2020, when pharmaceutical companies brought out vaccines, many people,  especially in America, felt challenged by the idea due to the virus being very new, not having enough information, historical experiences with the medical system, not trusting the system, religious perspectives, or other cultural reasons. A variety of challenges web across our community and yet, all of us need to prevent this disease.  So we encourage everyone to get a COVID vaccine can begin to impede any new infections and kill off this disease. However, what many don’t understand is that once you have the vaccine, you  still need to keep your mask on and stay 6 feet away from people. You might ask, why the hell is that? Well, the vaccine is still new and not enough people have had access as of yet. As well, people are still being infected, which means that you could be infected by that person who is sick. This is much like taking PrEP and having condomless sex.

The problem is when we don’t want to be honest, don’t want to get tested, don’t want to know if we have HIV or other STIs and then we go get one pill of PrEP medication; even though you are supposed to take it 7 days out of the week. This is part of the challenge that we have in building new ideas to prevent viruses and to allow our community efforts in how to protect themselves. Our society is so entrenched with homophobia, discussing sex or sexual practices, and coming into contact with bacterial and viral diseases, yet we go out and have condomless sex all of the time. Condomless sex leads to exposure from the semen, pre-ejaculation, vaginal secretions and blood if present, but we don’t talk about that part of sex. We also don’t talk about whether we actually know that person that you had condomless sex with or if they have other sex partners or might be at risk for STIs. This is a challenge for those of us that love sex and want to be intimate with someone AND we also need to be safe.

So, if you are thinking about being safe in your health like a COVID vaccine or getting on PrEP to prevent HIV, think about how to stay safe throughout the process. We all need to keep wearing our masks and stay 6 feet away from other people to prevent coming into contact with COVID. And for HIV prevention, we need to find the best ways to protect ourselves. As a health worker who has been sharing HIV, Harm Reduction, and prevention information for 20 years, I know that using a condom for sex even on PrEP is the same as getting your COVID vaccine and wearing a mask. #squishytalk

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