Monkey Pox Update

As more national, state, and local health emergencies are announced for the Monkeypox outbreak, local health jurisdictions and leaders are centralizing information and leaning in to new fluid strategies to for education, prevention, vaccination, and treatment. 

Vaccination Struggles

As many jurisdictions have struggled to centralize information, educate workers, and streamline information about treatment and vaccination options, many in the LGBTQIA+ community, especially long-term HIV/AIDS survivors, felt an all-too familiar wave of panic, misinformation, and lack of government action. 

Many struggled to know where to find information. Many with disabilities struggled to use the options available to schedule appointments, such as calling the 211 number. Additionally, with such limited supplies, local health jurisdictions needed to make decisions about how to prioritize first doses. These policy roll outs and delays in clearly communicating that information left many feeling lost and shamed and stigmatized for their sexual practices. 

New Strategies Announced

As currently approved, the JYNNEOS vaccine is licensed for a subcutaneous injection of two doses of 0.5 milliliters, 28 days apart.

This week, the California Department of Public Health, along with many others, issued interim guidance for intradermal administration of JYNNEOS. Individuals would still need to get two shots to be fully vaccinated, but the intradermal administration would only require 0.1 milliliters per injection, thereby effectively allowing five vaccines per vial as opposed to just one. 

National public health officials, including Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, emphasized this this new regiment is effective and will help put more shots in more arms.

Along with updating the administration of vaccines, the national strategic stockpile is already working closely with local jurisdictions to plan for outreach, education, and vaccination actions to coordinate with large special events which are attended by men who have sex with men, and specifically targeting events where there are large populations of Black and Hispanic men.

These events include New Orleans’ Southern Decadence and Atlanta’s Black Pride. Tool kits are being developed to help local health departments coordinate with event gatherers.

Health experts emphasized that these events would give health providers an opportunity to do targeted education and vaccinate more people than they might otherwise reach by meeting people where they are. 

Importantly, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Center for Disease Control, emphasized that providing these doses at events will not provide immediate protection. You still need that second shot 28 days later.

Additionally, TPOXXX, for treating the virus, has been made more widely available.

While manufacturing capacity for JYNNEOS is limited, health experts announced their request for Bavarian Nordic to work with a domestic manufacturer to expand capacity for subsequent orders.

San Diego Response

Community, health, and LGBTQIA+ leaders continue to educate each other and meet regularly to discuss issues with information sharing, updates from the County, and to better understand how the vaccine supplies are being distributed. 

The County’ Health and Human Services Agency website is updated daily with information and includes recordings of recent town halls, including one conducted on August 11 which summarizes the basics of the virus and the public information available.  

Despite guidance from the state, when I called 211 to inquire about the County’s plan to begin administering vaccines through intradermal injections, the individual I spoke with said they had no idea what I was talking about. 

I found myself explaining the letter from the California Department of Public Health to the worker who was supposed to be centralizing and communicating the most up-to-date information. This seems to be a recurring theme as San Diego City Commissioner, Nicole Murray Ramirez, also indicated on a social media post that they have been in many meetings with local leaders where they are educating them on the issues. Though I spoke to a health worker with a local clinic who did indicate their workers were still doing subcutaneous injections, but workers were being trained to offer intradermal administration in the “near future.”

As our community has often done, we turn to each other for mutual aid, education, information, and protection.

This public health emergency is disproportionately impacting our community. We need to acknowledge those who are working to educate our community, practice harm reduction strategies, and where possible abstain from known risky activities, big or small.

As an example, I went into HUMANITY! to browse their sales and was informed that because of monkeypox that they discontinued trying on underwear and gear for right now. Smart move, HUMANITY! There are steps we can all try to take to reduce our risk and we can do this without shaming or stigmatizing each other.

Locally, anyone is invited to the County’s weekly telebriefing for the LGBTQ+ community, which has been providing updates and taking questions from the community since the onset of this emergency.

Join the LGBTQ+ telebriefing on Monkeypox every week on Monday from 10:00 AM – 10:50 AM.

Please click the following link to join the webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89167385313

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One tap mobile: US: (669) 900-6833

Meeting ID: 89167385313#

(669) 444-9171