Monkeypox seemingly sprung out of nowhere to infect large swathes of the globe, replacing COVID-19 as the malady du jour. Experts say the number of monkeypox cases is severely undercounted, and the World Health Organization just declared the disease a global health emergency.
Monkeypox has hit America particularly hard. Our nation has the most recorded cases on Earth, with nearly a third centralized in New York City.
So, are we due for a new plague on par with the coronavirus?
According to the data, not unless you’re a gay guy.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that 98% of those infected around the world were gay or bisexual men who were having sex with other men.
That seems to indicate definitively that a specific demographic is more at risk for contracting monkeypox than others.
Yet the messaging strategy surrounding monkeypox seemingly has sought to obfuscate this fact. Buried under a mountain of menus on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website is this nugget specifying who should get vaccinated: “Currently, this outbreak is largely affecting gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men.”
And even when they do say something about how monkeypox almost exclusively infects gay men, public health officials couch their language by citing a nonexistent stigma against gay men as the reason.
~ snip ~
Long before monkeypox or the novel coronavirus, there was AIDS.
The 1980s saw mass panic surrounding this new and deadly illness. Although the average American had no idea who could contract the HIV virus that causes AIDS, it was clear to many health experts that the disease disparately affected gay men.
So naturally they lied and said it affected everyone.
In a 1983 article, a younger Fauci declared that children and heterosexual adults were at risk of contracting AIDS, as there existed “the possibility that routine close contact, as within a family household, can spread the disease.”
In 1996, The Wall Street Journal reported on the consequences of the decision to pretend everyone could get AIDS, to spare the feelings of gay men.
“The emphasis on the broad reach of the disease has virtually ensured that precious funds won’t go where they are most needed,” the Journal wrote nearly 30 years ago. “For instance, though homosexuals and intravenous drug users now account for 83% of all AIDS cases reported in the U.S., the federal AIDS-prevention budget includes no specific allocation for programs for homosexual and bisexual men.”
Sound familiar?
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