We Can Fight Monkeypox Without Hysteria or Homophobia
BERLIN — As I stayed home in late July, listening to the director general of the World Health Organization declare monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern, many of my friends were out celebrating Pride. The decision to affirm an emergency about two months into a global outbreak was the right one. But it felt far too late.
As an infectious disease reporter and a gay man, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with the global public health response to monkeypox and the communication around it. More than 25,000 cases have been confirmed so far in countries that had not been previously affected by the disease. Those infected are overwhelmingly found among gay men and our sexual networks. Friends of mine from Madrid, Paris, São Paulo and just down the street have told me about their infections. They were scared and in pain — monkeypox has been described as excruciating — and had a lot of questions.
Any successful response to an outbreak needs to be grounded in facts, and the facts are clear. Out of the cases recently reported to the W.H.O., data on sex is available for about three-quarters. Of these, about 99 percent are male. Data on sexual orientation is available for only about 7,500 cases, but of these, 97.5 percent are men who have sex with men.
This isn’t simply because cases in women or children are being overlooked. Britain’s Health Security Agency, for example, has published the number of tests performed for monkeypox and how many of them were positive. In adult men, more than half the tests were positive. Far fewer women were tested, but only 2 percent of them were positive, and in children 0.6 percent were positive. If many cases were being missed in these groups, those percentages would be expected to be much higher.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/04/opinion/monkeypox-communication.html
There was a lot of homophobia in the discussion of a WaPo article. The disease doesn't care if you're gay or straight.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Monkeypox is NOT a "gay" disease. It isn't even an STI. Did you even bother to read the article?
For your education, as well as others who seem to think this type of bullshit homophobia is OK....
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Unfortunately, it wasn’t the last time either. With the monkeypox virus (MPXV) having recently been declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization (WHO), queer people are once again being discriminated against and stigmatized. Experts believe this will prevent successful public health interventions from controlling the spread of the disease.
Monkeypox Is Not A “Gay Disease”
MPXV is a viral disease that spreads through close contact. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the infection spreads through:
Direct contact with MPXV rash, scabs, or body fluids from a person with MPXV,
Indirect contact, i.e., by touching objects or surfaces that have been used previously by somebody with MPXV,
Through respiratory droplets and secretions.
Although MPXV is not as infectious as COVID-19, more than 16,000 cases have been recorded worldwide, and the number continues to grow.
READ THE ARTICLE THIS TIME
And because it has to be posted as well...
In May 2022, former Virginia Tech football player Isimemen Etute was found not guilty of second-degree murder in the 2021 death of Jerry Smith, a gay man who Etute initially believed to be a woman based on Smith’s Tinder profile.
People online claimed it appeared that Etute had used the gay or trans panic defense, which is a legal defense that claims a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity/expression is to blame for a defendant’s violent reaction.
In response, a tweet with hundreds of shares claims that “the gay/trans panic defense isn’t banned in the overwhelming majority of states.”
Yes, the gay and trans panic defense is still legal in a majority of states.
Link to tweet
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