[lkozma]

No, they argue that this would lead to less demand for prostitutes, which would balance it out.

In effect they say that disease would spread more slowly in a graph with less highly connected hubs and more balanced number of connections per node. This is quite unsurprising.

[ringm]

Sure, this is quite obvious though I did not understand how they could balance out the increase, so I did not even mention this option.

The point about prostitutes was just a thought experiment, and it looks rather far from reality. The second thought experiment about Joan hooking up with Maxwell seems much more realistic, but I don't see why Maxwell wouldn't hook up with someone else the same day. Actually, the more promiscuous side usually takes the initiative, so I'd say it is quite likely that if not for Joan, some other poor girl would get AIDS anyway.