One of the most disturbing issues raised in the film is why young gay men would want to deliberately infect themselves with HIV. The men featured in the movie explain that they do so, in part, to fit in with their friends, many of whom are HIV-positive, because they believe that by becoming "poz," they won't have to worry about getting the virus, and because the development of anti-AIDS drug "cocktails" means the disease is no longer a death warrant.

Perry Halkitis, a research psychologist at New York University who has conducted extensive studies on health issues in the gay community, called the film "shortsighted, uni-dimensional and sensationalist."

"Clearly we know unsafe sex among gay men is on the rise again," he said. "[But] she's clearly got an agenda, and this movie is about her agenda. It's not a well-rounded, objective representation of what is going on."

Although [the filmmaker] Hogarth does not dispute that "bug chasers" might be few in number, she contends that the number of gay men who engage in unsafe sex is a gross illustration of the failure of AIDS prevention in America. "It's not the immaculate infection," she said. "The main way the disease is being spread is by HIV-positive people having unsafe sex.”