The Nation - News from March 7, 1988

Experts have denounced a new study by well-known sex researchers Dr. William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson warning of twice as many heterosexual AIDS carriers as previously estimated and proclaiming the deadly virus can be transmitted by kissing and less intimate contact. The report, to be released today in New York by Masters and Johnson, also called for mandatory testing for the virus causing acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Their report says “infection with the AIDS virus does not require intimate sexual contact or sharing of intravenous needles. . . . “ But Terry Beirn, of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, said the report was “like pouring kerosene on the flames of hysteria” that public health officials and others have been trying to dampen for the last seven years.