Newsweek journalist
Seth Mnookin reviewed the
Rolling Stone in an article titled, "Is Rolling Stone's Hiv Story Wildly Exaggerated?". Later in the year,
NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists recognized Mnookin with an "Excellence in New Media" award for this article. Freeman as author and Rolling Stone editor Ed Needham acknowledged the doctors' denials of the statements, but claimed that they reported what the doctors told them.
Andrew Sullivan writing for
Salon.com said that he checked the gay sex websites which
Rolling Stone mentioned, but could not find discussion of bug chasing.
Tim Cavanaugh writing for
Reason.com did a review of prior journalism on bugchasing in response to the
Rolling Stone article. He said that bugchasing is comparable to
body integrity dysphoria, but whereas
Rolling Stone portrays bugchasing as lurid, instead the reality is pitiful. In response to the article, the director of the
AIDS Project Los Angeles said their organization had not observed bugchasing, and that the story seemed like an
Internet Phenomenon or an
urban legend. The
Drudge Report was a conservative news source which cited
Rolling Stone and repeated the claim that large numbers of gay men sought out HIV infection.
Rolling Stone reported that there were 40,000 HIV infections in the United States every year with 10,000 of those due to bug chasing. In their article, they called for congress to halt funding to AIDS prevention organizations such as the
Stop AIDS Project, claiming that money to such groups ultimately encourages risky behaviors and raises infection rates. ==Research==