What does 'undetectable' mean?
In the studies cited, the terminology used was actually "virally suppressed", which was defined as less than 200 copies of virus per mL of blood. But standard HIV viral load testing can measure virus as low as 40 or 50 copies per mL, So if anything, the risk of transmission under real world conditions would actually be LOWER than in any of the studies.
(By comparison, a typical untreated HIV+ person might have a viral load of anywhere from 50,000 to the low millions. So you can see that the viral suppression we are talking about here is virtually complete.)
If the researchers are unwilling to put 'zero' on that side of the equation, how can they put zero on the other side?
Because the science shows that at such low levels of virus as to be unmeasurable, or almost so, transmission cannot occur. Why would this be unbelievable? It has been demonstrated for any number of pathogens what the thresholds are for an infection to take hold. For some it is only a few, for others it is in the hundreds of thousands. For HIV, it has now been determined that the number is something greater than 200 copies per mL.
This really looks to me as another case of mass media journalists taking a scientist's work to mean more than the researcher is willing to say
If anything, reporting on these findings has shown a propensity to attempt the opposite, i.e. to play up the potential risks of transmission. Which is why Dr. Fauci's statement is so important i.e. that the caution inherent in scientific language should not be used to assert risks that don't actually exist.
But when 'further study is needed' comes up with another contradictory result, the same media will then claim the first story just shows how science cannot be trusted.
You might ask yourself why you carry such skepticism of these particular results, now validated by several studies, and whether it has anything to do with your attitudes about those who carry this particular virus that makes you unwilling to accept that they pose no risk to you.
Oh, and Bill, barring someone in prison, or trying to make some money to buy crack, I can't imagine anyone, male or female, who would want to do so with you, so you have nothing to worry about in any case.
