But in Florida, and other parts of the South, gay people worry that the response to monkeypox may not always be a priority because the virus affects the health of gay men, especially those who are black or Hispanic. They also worry that local governments are not responding urgently to diseases that primarily affect marginalized communities.
“They’re not going to go out of their way to help us,” said Hank Rosenthal, 74, a gay man and retired emergency physician, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Jeremy Redfern, spokesman for the Florida Department of Health and speaking on behalf of local health departments, said the agency is “fully integrated” to meet public health needs in all 67 counties of the State. “There are no jurisdictional boundaries within reach in Florida,” he said. “There is no politics with monkeypox”.
But recent laws like Florida’s banning the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation in certain elementary school grades — dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by opponents — and the state’s ban on transgender care for people on Medicaid have created a hyperpoliticized atmosphere around issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity, LGBTQ+ advocacy groups say. And some groups are feeling the need to take matters into their own hands, especially in states that have downplayed the covid 19 pandemic and banned mandatory masks and vaccines to limit the spread of the virus.
“We’re mobilizing, and we’re trying to make a difference because our job is to take care of our community,” said Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas, an LGBTQ+ rights group. “We cannot depend on the state to provide the help and security we need, so we have to organize ourselves. »
The first suspected case of monkeypox in Florida was reported in Broward County in late May. Since then, the health department said most of the state’s more than 2,200 cases — about 2 in 3 — have occurred in Miami-Dade and Broward counties in southern Florida, where Mr. DeChellis and his friends traveled to get vaccinated against monkeypox.
The vaccine, called Jynneos, is being shipped from the national strategic stockpile directly to health departments in five counties. From there, the state sends the vaccines to doctors, hospitals and other county health departments “as needed,” Redfern said.
The national stockpile ships vaccines to five sites per state, and initially used a distribution system that state officials were unaware of; they had to track doses manually and place orders by email rather than an automated system, which created a bottleneck. On September 6, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced that it had awarded a $20 million contract to a private wholesale company to “significantly” expand vaccine distribution to more sites in the coming weeks.
As government responses improve, LGBTQ+ rights advocates and people who tried to get vaccinated in Florida say access to vaccines and information during the early months of the virus’s spread was poor. inconsistent. According to them, local health departments have used different eligibility criteria, appointment scheduling systems and public outreach methods.
Brandon Lopez of Orlando said when he first tried to get vaccinated by his local health department in June, he was told that only health care workers in labs and those who take shots of blood were eligible. Lopez, 30, said he considered traveling to Miami after hearing that friends there had been vaccinated, but was told appointments were for local residents only. .
Some counties announced online appointment booking in mid-July, but many people who tried to register said no slots were available or they received an error message prompting you to create a new email account.
“I look at my friends who live in Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and they can just walk to one place,” said Josh Roth, 33, of Orlando, who waited nearly three weeks to receive their first dose of vaccine. “They may have a few hours of waiting, but they are able to get vaccinated.”
Campaigners also worry that people with more education, money and time might be better able to access vaccines.
Early data suggests that black and Hispanic men are disproportionately affected by monkeypox cases, but non-Hispanic white patients received more first doses of the vaccine than any other group, according to the CDC.
More appointments began to open up in Florida in mid-August after the FDA cleared a new method of administering the vaccine that required special training and equipment but stretched limited supplies. from the country.
DeChellis did not have to travel to Wilton Manors for his second injection on August 23, and Roth received his second dose as scheduled. After trying for weeks to get an appointment online, Lopez got his shot in early August at the Orange County Health Department in Orlando.
But the experience gave him the impression that monkeypox was not a pressing issue for local health officials. “I think if it doesn’t reach a lot of people, it’s not going to be a priority,” Lopez said.
After the monkeypox outbreak began, some southern health departments began partnering with so-called trusted messengers from the LGBTQ+ community to raise awareness and hold vaccination clinics.
In South Florida, for example, the Broward County Health Department reached out to high-risk groups in the community to help them get vaccinated, said Robert Boo, CEO of the Pride Center at Equality Park. , a non-profit organization that provides social and health services to LGBTQ+ people and organized a vaccination campaign. In Texas, Equality Texas hosted a webinar with doctors and other experts who answered questions from the audience.
But in other areas, gay and bisexual men said they couldn’t get answers, not even from their local health services.
Florida, Georgia and Texas together account for 26% of the nearly 22,000 confirmed cases reported as of September 9, but their reaction is different from that of the California and New York, where emergency declarations from governors have allowed more health care workers to administer the vaccine and local health departments to get more state funding for vaccinations, education and awareness.
“An emergency declaration does nothing for the response,” said Mr. Redfern, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Health, which is responding to a concurrent epidemic of meningococcal disease also primarily affecting gay and bisexual men.
“There is nothing a new state of emergency order can’t do for Georgians that hasn’t already been done,” said Andrew Isenhour, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. He also said the Georgia Department of Public Health has raised awareness about monkeypox and recently launched a statewide portal to schedule vaccinations.
In Texas, authorities in Austin and Dallas declared local emergencies in early August. The Texas State Department of Health Services would not comment on whether a statewide statement was warranted.
Some providers, like Dr. Ivan Melendez of the Hidalgo County Health Authority in southern Texas, agree that monkeypox is spreading primarily among men who have sex with men, a statement at the scale of the state is not necessary. Laboratory tests, vaccines and advice for clinicians and the public are available.
But others say an emergency declaration would signal the existence of a threat, free up funds, require additional reporting and cut red tape.
“This gives us a concerted response,” said Jill Roberts, epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of South Florida. “This allows for more information: Where do the vaccines go? Where are the cases occurring? Where are the hotspots we can hit? »
Dr. Melanie Thompson, an Atlanta doctor who cares for people living with HIV, said she would like the state and governor to play a bigger role in coordinating a uniform response across all 159 counties. Georgia. Not all local health departments are adequately staffed or funded, Ms. Thompson said.
“They’re all out there doing their own thing,” she said. “Some counties are doing a very good job of this. Others not at all. »
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