The fallout of a new revelation in the sexual activity space is going to be far-reaching. It seems that sexually-transmitted diseases (STD) may be spreading exponentially as more people stay on lockdown across the US. It would seem, with not many options to choose from, everyone is turning to sex to occupy their time. However, there’s much more to it than that.

Across the US, health care workers have been forced to redirect their attention to containing the coronavirus and are not spending the same amount of time on other, habitual activities, such as tracing HIV and STDs. Contact tracers are those who typically keep tabs on the diseases, and, according to Business Insider (BI), they are admittedly unable to dedicate the necessary resources to the activity, with case loads being much lighter than before.

There’s also the fact that fewer people are able to get tested. Since everyone has been forced to stay at home, submitting to a test for an STD has become a luxury, not a necessity. As a result, there is a greater propensity for the diseases to spread, as more people are less aware that they could be transmitters.

David Hervey, who leads the National Coalition of STD Directors, explains, “Anecdotally, I don’t think people have stopped having sex necessarily, although the number of partners may have gone down. we’re really worried about the larger issues of people not getting tested, people not getting treated, and what that means for inadvertent spread of infections in the future.”