monkey pox: Ignore basic public health interventions because they might stop your pleasure

 Ann Althouse links to a NYTimes article critical of the CDC on monkeypox

Even after it was evident that this painful, potentially disfiguring or even fatal infection was spreading through gay men’s sexual networks.... public health officials and the media were hesitant to give the same advice they had given freely at the beginning of the Covid pandemic: Limit your number of sex partners and express your sexuality in socially distanced ways.

yup. you might have been accused of homophobia if you did, and but at least they didn't pretend that anyone could catch it (and leave out te pertainant details, as they did with HIV, where promiscuous sex and IV drug use was barely mentioned) 

But while health officials and journalists hesitated, gay and bi men sprang into action. Young men with lesions covering their faces took to social and mainstream media, telling the public... And the gay community listened....

So while an early and frankly honest public health response could have blunted the outbreak, resulting in far fewer cases and far less suffering, the swift collective action of gay and bi men prevented catastrophe.... When it comes to emerging health threats — even ones that can spread sexually — gay men can handle the truth. You can give it to them straight."

Only one little problem... actually two.

One: They didn't shut down gay bars, massive rave parties etc. where a lot of the cases spread.

Two: They didn't go public in a way that alerted the minority communities to the danger.

A lot of less sophisticated men in minority communities are bi but identify as hetero sexual, and hide their behavior when they go out now and then to meet someone for sex. To erach these communities, you need to work via churches or other networks in the inner city, (but public health alas is too busy being non judgemental so actually condemns that these groups condemn promiscuous sex, even though the result is less risky behavior).

So one result of this nexus of white privlege and pro gay advocacy and ignoring the basic lessons of public health was ignorace that there was a problem out there, which led to a high death rate in minority communities: by not curbing dangerous behavior, by not getting the monkey pox vaccine, and by not recognizing the symptoms and getting a delay in treatment.

From the CDC:

Almost 90% of U.S. mpox-associated deaths occurred in Black men, whereas fewer than one in three mpox survivors were Black men.

translation: only one third of people who got monkey pox were black, but 90 percent of those who died of it were from minority communities. 

,...However, nearly one quarter of decedents experienced delays of 3–7 weeks between diagnosis and treatment, and two patients did not receive any mpox-directed treatment. ..

 So was this because they had to sit in a crowded ER for a couple hours to be seen? Or travel a distance to the local STD clinic? Or did they lack insurance and just hope it went away?

 The gender and racial disparities in mpox-associated deaths align with previous reports, in which most patients hospitalized for severe manifestations of mpox were Black men with uncontrolled HIV (4) and parallel racial and ethnic disparities in HIV infection and mortality.

translation: We see the same problem with lack of treatment for HIV. 

In 2020, 75% of all-cause deaths among adults with HIV occurred in males, 39% of whom were Black males.**** Disparities and barriers are apparent at all levels of HIV care including recognition of HIV risk, access to testing, and access to and receipt of preexposure prophylaxis and ART (7).

This is not racism but economic.

And the distrust of the medical system doesn't help. 

You can teach all the PC stuff about racism in the medical schools, but since a lot of the clinics in the inner city and poor rural areas are staffed with either suburban karen type women docs or by overseas graduates, you have a trust problem.

an earlier post about monkey pox is here.