EPA
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NOS News•today, 03:54
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San Francisco mayor declares a state of emergency over the rising number of monkey pox cases in the city. “We desperately need vaccines for the people of San Francisco,” Mayor Breed said, saying her calls for federal support are still not being heard.
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The state of emergency, which will take effect after the weekend, will allow the local government to allocate more resources against the outbreak, and also to deploy those resources more quickly. There are no lockdowns or other restrictive measures.
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The local health authorities call San Francisco “the epicenter of the country. Thirty percent of all cases in California are in San Francisco.” The city has so far identified 261 cases of monkeypox, out of 800 in the entire state of California. About 4,600 monkeypox infections have now been registered in the United States.
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Poor information provision
Like in the Netherlands there aren’t many vaccines in California, much to the chagrin of the local LGBTI community, where most of the cases are cropping up so far. The virus is transmitted through intensive physical contact and, as in Europe, it is mainly found in men who have sex with men, although other groups can also contract monkey pox.
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Part of the LGBTI community’s annoyance also stems from the lack of information about the virus in San Francisco. It is said that information about monkey pox tests or vaccines is dependent on social media rather than official channels.
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Politically, the monkeypox situation in the city has been linked to the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. “San Francisco has been at the forefront of the response to HIV and Covid-19 and we will be leading the way in monkey pox,” said Democratic Senator Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco. “We cannot and will not leave the LGBTI community out in the cold.”
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