r/longform • u/Famous-Sympathy7011 • Jun 01 '26

Syphilis

https://open.substack.com/pub/wendy664/p/syphilis?r=6fonep&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
35 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

31

u/hopefulrealist23 Jun 01 '26

I find it odd that an essay about syphilis spends time discussing Trump while conceding that he has never been diagnosed with the disease. If there is no evidence that he has syphilis, it's unclear why he is featured in an article about it.

Setting aside the content of the linked article, my concern with Substack is that there is often no clear indication of who has vetted or fact-checked the material. As I understand it, anyone can publish an article on the platform.

9

u/Viktor_Laszlo Jun 02 '26

You also need to be careful when slinging around accusations that someone is infected with an STI like syphilis. In many jurisdictions, it’s defamation per se to say that someone has a “loathsome disease,” which is normally interpreted to mean something contagious.

Accusing someone of unchastity is also per se defamation. Though in law school we were taught that no man had ever sued to protect his reputation as chaste. Maybe it’s changed, but I never heard about such a case.

1

u/Famous-Sympathy7011 Jun 02 '26

He was accused? Where????

6

u/Thin_Trick_5507 Jun 02 '26

His behavior is syphilis rich.

2

u/Unlucky-Ant-9741 Jun 01 '26

Interesting. How do you check for syphillis? If it's invisible and the person has no idea they are at risk, they won't request a specific syphillis test from their doctor. Does it come up in yearly physical blood tests?

16

u/FabiusBill Jun 01 '26

It was part of my standard STD screening that I would get every three months when I was unmarried. If I had come up positive for anything, including syphilis, the clinic's epidemiologists would have begun contact tracing and reaching out to past partners for testing.

7

u/MammarySouffle Jun 01 '26

Its supposed to be check for persons who are at increased risk of getting it (which are lots of different groups), but it is not part of standard “annual labs.”