Obama alumnus Andy Slavitt tweeted that sexual activity being the cause of monkeypox was a “myth.” The D.C. Health Department doesn’t seem to be interested in singling out any at-risk communities. COVID fear-spreader Eric Feigl-Ding says the fall school year will require “radically” new safety mitigations. Everyone panic!
The Washington Post reports that sex is a “major driver” of the spread of monkeypox, but notes that health officials and longtime AIDS activists say calls for abstinence don’t work.
Sex is a major driver of the global monkeypox outbreak. But health officials and longtime HIV activists say calls for abstinence don’t work. https://t.co/6zeOcARfdY
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 4, 2022
Fenit Nirappil and Amitra Jayakumar report:
Thousands of gay men clad in leather, latex — and often much less — partied along Folsom Street here last weekend during the annual kink and fetish festival. Even after the city had just declared the monkeypox outbreak striking its gay community a health emergency — one day after the World Health Organization urged men to sleep with fewer men to reduce transmission — San Francisco public health officials made no attempt to rein in festivities or warn attendees to have less sex.
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention weighs whether to recommend limiting sexual partners, health officials in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and other U.S. cities battling surges disproportionately sickening gay men are avoiding calls for sexual restraint, wary of further stigmatizing same-sex intimacy.
Public health authorities typically emphasize safer sex over abstinence to prevent the spread of diseases through intimate contact. But monkeypox is presenting new challenges in calibrating the right message to stop the rare virus from becoming endemic while limiting government intrusion into the bedroom.
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Limiting government intrusion? Like shutting down your business and mandating masks”
1) Citation needed. In particular, *why* wouldn't calls for abstinence work?
2) Abstinence isn't really necessary here (or to stop HIV). Monogamy would go a long way.
— AmishDude (@TheAmishDude) August 4, 2022
Calls for abstinence won’t work, in short, because if people want to have sex, they’re going to have sex.
I feel like "don't leave your house, don't go to weddings or funerals, don't visit your dying loved ones, don't eat out, don't send your kids to school, and wear a mask everywhere" is kind of a bigger ask than rein-in-your-promiscuity. https://t.co/5ldkAuIOgb
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) August 4, 2022
https://t.co/XRkOlSmY6R pic.twitter.com/SbceVD1sgT
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 4, 2022
I'm curious. Does public health not understand how badly it's damaging its credibility by blatantly playing favorites, or is it simply so assured of its power and righteousness that it doesn't care?
— Ar-Zimraphel (@Ar_Zimraphel) August 4, 2022
Bruh.
— ZUBY: (@ZubyMusic) August 4, 2022
If abstinence won’t work, why did people ever think a lockdown would?
— James Spiro (@JamesSpiro) August 4, 2022
After the crap you pulled the last 2 years you gave the gall to say this.
— Ryuusukehunter (@ryuusukehunter) August 4, 2022
Are we not trusting "the science" here?
— Bill (@WLFManBill) August 4, 2022
The only way abstinence doesn’t work is if you’re not being abstinent.
— Joseph Jones (@JoeGayHistorian) August 4, 2022
Wow, remember when our government closed businesses, schools, public parks, our borders all in the name of safety, but asking/encouraging people to engage in safe sex practices is stepping over the line. Crazy times!
— 🌸 Deb H 🌸 (@deb_h7) August 4, 2022
We’re expected to believe we can stop freely breathing air, but no one is capable of not humping someone else. Ok.
— Bonnie 🇺🇦 (@ForagingForever) August 4, 2022
Call for it anyway, don't mandate it. At least encourage them to stick with one partner for a while. Let the people at risk know what the most risky behavior is. These are adults and they (and the rest of us) should be treated as such.
— Jeff Weimer (@Jeff_Weimer) August 4, 2022
Not even “two weeks to slow the spread?” Hypocrisy.
— Silence and Frost (@secjr112) August 4, 2022
So they aren’t even going to try? Just gonna assume every gay man knows this is a huge risk factor? Seem supremely irresponsible.
— K J Gillenwater (@kjgillenwater) August 4, 2022
We noticed in the tweet they were careful to say “sex” and not “gay sex.” We don’t want another AIDS panic on our hands.
Related:
Beloved San Francisco fetish festival still on despite anxieties over monkeypox https://t.co/5RAwVn9yCc
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 1, 2022
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