Monkeypox Vaccine Crisis: Entirely Predictable, Totally Avoidable
Monkeypox is tearing its way through communities of gay men around the country and the world. Growing exponentially like COVID-19, and with scary — if less deadly — symptoms, the similarities between the pandemics don’t stop there. They say history repeats itself — and if this monkeypox vaccine rollout is any indication, the government has learned nothing about human behavior and equity since AIDS and COVID. In fact, they are making many of the same mistakes as before.
And there’s plenty to be mad about. For example: the government sitting on hundreds of thousands of doses of the vaccine, only moving to import when there was an outcry. Or public health authorities seemingly caught unaware even though testing, vaccination and treatment solutions existed for this disease (unlike early AIDS and COVID). Or even the complete lack of consistency and appropriateness around messaging — leaving many to feel stigmatized by the gay-centric nature of monkeypox’s spread.
While most pundits are focused on the bureaucratic issues limiting supply of the vaccine, the truth is that the nation’s supply is not yet exhausted. Meaning: at present, the thing preventing people from getting a jab is not the number of jabs available, but rather something about the logistics and process of obtaining one.
