As Monkeypox Spreads, a Campaign to Warn the Public Gains Urgency
Grindr, the social networking app, sent a pop-up message about the risk of monkeypox to millions of European and American users.
A sex party organizer in New York asked invitees to check themselves for lesions before showing up. And the organizers of the city’s main Pride celebrations posted a monkeypox notice Sunday on their Instagram account.
As hundreds of thousands of people gather in New York City and elsewhere to celebrate Pride this month, city and federal officials, health advocates and party organizers are rushing to disseminate an increasingly urgent health warning about the risk of monkeypox. “Be aware, but don’t panic,” said Jason Cianciotto, the vice president of communications and policy at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, summing up the message the group is trying to convey.
The virus, long endemic in parts of Africa, is now transmitting globally, and, while it can infect anyone, at the moment it is spreading primarily through networks of men who have sex with men, officials say.
