/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/madsack/BJT3UVXXHZD3VNGVZJQO5PKAGQ.jpg "New York as the new hotspot")
The New York City Department of Health’s website greets its visitors with a positive message: “Stay healthy for a summer of fun!” But soon the fun stops. “All available appointments are currently taken,” announces the electronic booking system for the monkeypox vaccination.
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The viral disease has also been spreading in the USA for weeks. And New York City, where the first case was registered in mid-May, is becoming one of the hotspots with 1,250 of the 5,000 cases nationwide as of Friday. But the coveted Jynneos vaccine from the German-Danish manufacturer Bavarian Nordic is in short supply. When the first 1,000 cans were delivered to Manhattan at the end of June, just before Pride weekend, there was a real rush to the clinic. After two hours the vaccine was gone.
New York hesitated too long when it came to infection control
Monkeypox spreads primarily through close physical contact with infected people, but it can also be transmitted through contaminated clothing or bedding. It mainly affects gay and bisexual men or other men who have sex with men. In the United States, this group of people makes up 99 percent of those affected. There are only three women among the 1,250 patients in New York. Only 21 male patients described themselves as heterosexual.
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At a party on Pride Day a few weeks ago, New York Mayor Eric Adams exuberantly declared: “Here in New York we are happy to say: we are gay,” columnist Ginia Bellafante noted in the “New York Times”. If you look at how the virus is dealt with, these are empty promises. The metropolis reacted too late and hesitantly again.
The vaccine doses against the virus are scarce
Representatives of the LGBTQ community have voiced even harsher criticism over the lack of vaccines. The states and the government in Washington blame each other. “We have done everything that can be done at the federal level to ensure, with our state and local partners, that we contain the outbreak,” Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said. But the local authorities would have to do “their part”.
Around 320,000 vaccine doses have now arrived in the USA and been distributed to the states. After a time-consuming certification process by the FDA in Denmark, a further 780,000 doses are now expected. Meanwhile, the state of New York and the city of San Francisco, which is also developing into a hotspot, have declared a health emergency.
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The concern about stigmatization is great
But the lack of vaccine is only part of the problem. At the same time, there are heated debates among those responsible about the right communication to contain the risk of infection. “Monkeypox is clearly spreading like an STD,” Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health, told the New York Times. “Monkeypox is not an STD,” disagreed his colleague Jason Farley: “It’s an infection that can be transmitted through sexual contact.”
Behind the dispute is concern about renewed stigmatization of gay men and their sexual practices, as they existed at the outbreak of HIV. However, according to experts, political consideration sometimes threatens to obscure the necessary precautionary message. For example, the official advisor to the New York Health Authority mentions that having sex with a monkeypox infection carries high risks. As a precaution, he recommends avoiding kissing and covering open wounds during intercourse.
Don Weiss, an experienced epidemiologist who has been responsible for monitoring epidemic activity at the agency for 22 years, did not agree with this formulation. He wanted a public recommendation to risk groups to temporarily reduce the number of their sexual contacts. According to media reports, he was then transferred to another position. However, Weiss has had a prominent ally since the middle of the week: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), has also recommended “reducing the number of sexual partners for the moment”.
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/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/madsack/CX2MKRQVIBBBDL3GJ7GWMV6UYE.jpg "Events, birthdays, days of death – the calendar page on Saturday, July 30th, 2022")
