The White House’s monkeypox response team has announced new plans to reach at-risk populations — particularly men who have sex with other men — by providing additional support to communities with large LGBTQI+ events planned.
The additional vaccines will go to communities in Louisiana, Georgia and California ahead of the Southern Decadence festival in New Orleans, Georgia’s Atlanta Black Pride event, and Pridefest in Oakland, Calif. According to the White House, about 94% of monkeypox cases have been associated with sexual activity, and nearly all cases have been seen in men who have sex with other men.
The monkeypox virus, which is similar to, but less severe than, smallpox, is especially transmisible from close contact with infected skin lesions, recently contaminated objects and prolonged respiratory contact.
“This festival can attract up to 300,000 individuals, not just from Louisana or even from the south, but from across the country,” said Louisana Gov. John Bel Edwards. “And we are expectign tens of thousands of people in New Orleans over this Labor Day weekend. So being able to prepare for that and to get a head start on the vaccinations, on the testing, on the communication, is all extremely important.”
The Biden administration, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said, learned the importance of meeting people where they are from the COVID pandemic. “It’s not enough to wait for people to show up at a doctor’s office, or a county health department to schedule a vaccination appointment. We need to set up vaccination clinics where people are, and when we do that, there are better health outcomes for all of us.”
To that end, Becerra said, additional monkeypox vaccine vials will be allocated to the Southern Decadence and Atlanta Black Pride festivals, providing up to 5,000 vaccinations at each event. An additional 2,400 doses will be provided to Oakland for both Oakland Pride on Sept. 4, and Pridefest, on Sept. 10.
The additional vials — which, when used in concert with recently-adopted intradermal vaccination techniques that provide about four vaccine doses per vial — help address equity gaps that have been seen among people of color, said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the White House’s National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator.
According to a CDC survey discussed last week, Black and Latino men are among the minority of those who have gotten the vaccine. They are also “increasingly and disproportionately” representing new cases, said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.
Daskalakis said that an equity innovation pilot program has earmarked 10,000 vials of vaccine for locally-identified vaccine interventions — programs that seek to reach people in states, counties and communities that the federal government may not be reaching.
Up to 100 vials per jurisdiction will be available to be used in up to 5 equity-related inteventions, including distribution at smaller events and in venues reaching the Black and Latino LGBTQ populations.
