Since he was named White House national monkeypox response deputy coordinator, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, or Dr. D for short, has been logging long hours at the office, getting very little sleep.“First, I’m excited to be here, and to be working with Robert Fenton, the national monkeypox response coordinator, who brings so much experience from [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] as an emergency management leader,” Daskalakis says. “We are in an emergency, and I think everyone at the White House realizes that it’s an all-hands-on-deck moment.
There is an urgency to the work we are doing.”Daskalakis says he was chosen for the deputy role to specifically work on ramping out outreach to the LGBTQ+ community. “My primary responsibility is doing right by the LGBTQIA+ community and to make sure that there is a higher level of coordination on all fronts moving in the right direction,” he says.Daskalakis, a leading public health expert, has been director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of HIV Prevention.
since 2020. He is widely known as an expert on health issues affecting LGBTQ+ people. He previously oversaw management of infectious diseases for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, one of the largest such departments in the nation — including serving as incident commander for the city’s COVID-19 response.“I want to be really clear here.