The Patriot Post® · In Brief: Monkeypox See, Monkeypox Do

Joe Biden announced a task force to lead the administration’s response to monkeypox. That team includes experts “on health issues affecting the LGBGQIA+ [sic] communities.” That got us to wondering why that focus would be necessary. Biden’s statement never says. The same goes for California Governor Gavin Newsom, who declared a state of emergency in his state while promising to “stand with the LGBTQ community fighting stigmatization.” Why? He doesn’t say.

The reality, of course, is that while monkeypox is not specifically a homosexual disease, it is disproportionately prevalent among men who have sex with men. According to the Washington Examiner:

Though anyone can be susceptible to the disease, nearly all cases are in gay or bisexual men, according to health officials. Data from New York City found that nearly 98% of cases were in men, with just 1.4% identifying as heterosexual.

Those stats aren’t limited to New York City. Douglas Blair of The Daily Signal notes:

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.

Yet the media is, like Democrats, reticent to speak clearly. According to The Washington Free Beacon:

Journalists insist on using the phrase “men who have sex with men” — decades-old terminology often used during the AIDS epidemic — to explain the fact that gay and bisexual men comprise about 98 percent of more than 18,000 monkeypox cases worldwide. Some left-wing activists have argued that even pointing this out is “stigmatizing,” while more sane individuals have suggested this is “particularly important information for gay men to know.”

“Monkeypox” might also be racist, as it turns out. The Beacon adds:

Some “don’t say gay” advocates want to go even further. Earlier this week, New York City health commissioner Ashwin Vasan called on the World Health Organization to rename the monkeypox virus due to “a growing concern for the potentially stigmatizing effects that the messaging around the ‘monkeypox’ virus can have on vulnerable communities.”

As for that AIDS comparison, Blair adds:

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 [Anthony] 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.”

How many lives affected by any of these viruses could have been better served by tailoring response to those most at risk instead of treating everyone as equal to avoid “stigmatizing” anyone?

As for monkeypox, Erick Erickson gets right down to the point:

The spread of monkeypox had mostly been confined to the gay community, mostly spread through random sexual encounters and group sex. …

The same public health community that shut down churches, beaches, businesses and schools and demanded we stop seeing our grandparents is made up of the same public health officials who cannot bring themselves to prohibit group sexual activities. There will be no “two weeks of no orgies” to stop the spread of monkeypox despite two years of shutdowns to stop COVID-19.

Maybe someone should ask these officials why they hate gay men so much that they won’t even suggest that maybe these guys should hold off on promiscuous anal sex for a while for their own good. Guy Benson, a gay conservative, agrees:

It’s not pointless"sex shaming.“ It’s not homophobic to bluntly recommend that at-risk, sexually-active gay and bisexual men scale back their sexual exploits, or even abstain from them for a period of time, until they can get vaccinated. It’s sound counsel, based on data and science.

Given that the Left is actually generally anti-science, it’s no wonder this has become a problem once again.