Monkeypox: An expert explas what gay and bisexual men need to know

HOW GAY MEN SAVED US FROM MPOX
CDC OFFICIALS SOUND ALARM FOR GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN AS MONKEYPOX SPREADS MUNY
MONKEYPOX: PUBLIC HEALTH ADVICE FOR GAY, BISEXUAL AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN
MONKEYPOX IS SPREADG AMONG GAY MEN WORLDWI
MONKEYPOX ULD SPREAD WELL BEYOND MUNI OF GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN, WHO SAYS
MONKEYPOX VACC OFFERED TO GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN NEW YORK, CANADA AND U.K.
UNRSTANDG MONKEYPOX AMONG GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
MONKEYPOX: AN EXPERT EXPLAS WHAT GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN NEED TO KNOW

HOW GAY MEN SAVED US FROM MPOX

Anyone n get or spread monkeypox, but a “notable actn of s” the latt global outbreak are happeng among gay and bisexual men, the US Centers for Disease Control and Preventn said Monday. “Some groups may have a greater chance of exposure right now, but by no means is the current risk of exposure to monkeypox exclively to the gay and bisexual muny the US, ” said Dr.

“Anyone, anyone, n velop [and] spread monkeypox fectn, but … many of those affected the current global outbreak intified as gay and bisexual men.

CDC OFFICIALS SOUND ALARM FOR GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN AS MONKEYPOX SPREADS MUNY

So while we are seeg some s among men who have sex wh men, this is not a gay disease, ” WHO adviser Andy Seale said Monday. Half-naked gay men stood wh their pants around their ankl while clicians crouched between their legs, swabs at the ready. In early May of 2022, mpox found s way to gay rav Spa and Belgium, huge annual parti that draw men om all over the world.

MONKEYPOX: PUBLIC HEALTH ADVICE FOR GAY, BISEXUAL AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN

So this outbreak that started gay and bisexual muni mostly stayed those muni, but not for long. Both health officials and the media failed to expedly warn and engage the gay muny the outbreak’s ccial first the first s were reported among gay and bisexual men the Wt, health thori and the media uldn’t brg themselv to say the word “gay.

” To avoid stigmatizg gay and bisexual men, early reports buried the lead.

MONKEYPOX IS SPREADG AMONG GAY MEN WORLDWI

The Associated Prs didn’t mentn that this outbreak was beg seen almost exclively gay men until 15 paragraphs to one report; other reports didn’t mentn gay and bisexual men at all. A gay man snng headl May of last year might have learned of an outbreak — but unls he had traveled to Wt Ai recently, or had ntact wh fected ronts or primat, he uld have easily nclud that he wasn’t at this sire to avoid stigmatizg gay and bisexual men was unrstandable, wasn’t helpful.

We know gay sex has been unfairly blamed for everythg om natural disasters to the fall of Rome.

But their efforts to avoid stigmatizg the muny, health thori and the media failed to effectively warn gay and bisexual men. Ignorant of the threat as the vis spread, gay and bisexual men uldn’t take steps to protect themselv and their partners. Gay men wh mpox were turned away om urgent re clics and emergency rooms.

MONKEYPOX ULD SPREAD WELL BEYOND MUNI OF GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN, WHO SAYS

Cas began to appear a small handful of transgenr people and cisgenr women and children, raisg alarm about wir after was evint that this paful, potentially disfigurg or even fatal fectn was spreadg through gay men’s sexual works, public health officials and the media were hant to give the same advice they had given eely at the begng of the Covid panmic: Lim your number of sex partners and exprs your sexualy socially distanced while health officials and journalists hated, gay and bisexual men sprang to actn. ” Benjam Ryan, a gay journalist, and Carlton Thomas, a gay doctor, risked ncellatn — e.

Thomas referred to as “tough love” advice for their muny: Slam the brak on sex outsi of mted relatnships; seek immediate medil re for symptoms; and get vaccated as soon as the gay muny party promoters nceled long-planned events and dividual gay men temporarily leted hookup apps om their phon and rced their sexual ntacts. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventn verified the shifts behavr, reportg that half of gay men surveyed rced their number of sex partners, one-time sexual enunters and e of datg apps durg the outbreak. And gay and bisexual men got vaccated drov; two-thirds of those surveyed by the Pew Rearch Center September 2022 reported that they had already received an mpox vacce or were planng to do so.

Gay and bisexual men endured tratg attempts to secure appotments for the ccial first dose of the two-dose seri and hourslong was at pop-up vaccatn s. Of the over one ln dos of the Jynneos vacce (protective agast smallpox and mpox) admistered the Uned Stat sce June 2022, more than 90 percent were given to men (prumably gay and bisexual men). They acknowledged the reali of gay sexualy and s breadth of exprsn, g the actual language gay men e when discsg sex wh each other.

MONKEYPOX VACC OFFERED TO GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN NEW YORK, CANADA AND U.K.

Spoke ankly about “back rooms” and “sex parti” and the risk of ntractg mpox those those warng gay men to cut back on sex until they were vaccated agast mpox experienced accatns of fomentg stigma — echog phback experienced by gay men who urged others to avoid bathho and start g ndoms at the start of the AIDS crisis the early 1980s — efforts to shoot the msenger were ls aggrsive than years past. /AIDS and mpox: Many of the msengers were gay and bisexual men themselv, cludg gay journalists, doctors and average cizens wh accs to social media, pl a generatn of gay men who had been spired to pursue public health reers the wake of C. ’s chosen spokman to lead natnal nversatns on mpox and gay men’s sexual health wasn’t a straight doctor a lab at who squirmed at the mentn of gay sex.

Demetre Daskalakis, an out gay man who not only attends rav but posts shirtls selfi on social media to prove .

Fur over the feral ernment’s ial rponse to mpox, they mobilized and anized, prottg at lol Department of Health and Human Servic offic and filg a plat wh the Massachetts state attorney general over nial of mpox ttg and while an early and ankly hont public health rponse uld have blunted the outbreak, rultg far fewer s and far ls sufferg, the swift llective actn of gay and bisexual men prevented tastrophe. If the broar Amerin public had rpond to the threat of Covid-19 the way gay and bisexual men rpond to the threat of mpox, we might have seen fewer s (there have been 100 ln to date) and a lower ath toll (1. When the next fect outbreak strik (and surely will), the public would be wise to channel gay and bisexual men: munite openly whout stigmatizatn, anize and sist on accs to effective preventn, diagnosis and ’s another important lson about the gay muny that health officials and journalists need to remember gog forward: When to emergg health threats — even on that n spread sexually — gay men n handle the tth.

UNRSTANDG MONKEYPOX AMONG GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 22 of the New York edn wh the headle: Gay Men Saved Us From Mpox. The global outbreak has affected primarily (but not only) gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex wh men and has spread person-to-person through sexual works. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventn on Monday alerted gay and bisexual men that monkeypox appears to be spreadg the muny globally, warng people to take preutns if they have been close ntact wh someone who may have the vis and to be on the lookout for John Brooks, a CDC official, emphasized that anyone n ntract monkeypox through close personal ntact regardls of sexual orientatn.

However, Brooks said many of the people affected globally so far are men who intify as gay or bisexual.