In light of the CDC’s latest report on the HIV epidemic in D.C., a reader suggests that local gay men participate in Hope Takes Action, an effort to recruit men for clinical trials of a possible HIV vaccine. The study is looking for HIV-negative, circumcised men who have sex with men and who live close to one of the study locations. The closest site to D.C. is at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. One vague note on that whole circumcision thing: “Participants must be circumcised because of safety information learned in a previous vaccine study.”