Majority of people who practice safe sex do not affect HIV transmission. HIV transmits mostly through networks of people who do not practice safe sex. Unlike a

Majority of people who practice safe sex do not affect HIV transmission. HIV transmits mostly through networks of people who do not practice safe sex. Unlike a normal virus where people exchange it at random, here people that are more likely to get the virus also seek out other people that are more likely to get the virus. Normal r-value calculations do not apply because you no longer have homogenous population. You do not need a lot of these people to keep the virus alive. A person that practices unsafe sex once is more likely to do it more than once, with other people who will do the same. In effect forming a network within general population. While people who practice safe sex might become collateral damage (like spouses of people who practice unsafe sex or patients at a clinic that used untested blood) they are very unlikely to transmit it further (safe sex practices are very effective at preventing spread of HIV). Also no need to bring politics to it. Viruses do not care about politics.