Good morning. Over the weekend, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox to be a global health emergency, and said the outbreak “is concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners”. In the UK, the Terrence Higgins Trust called for an urgent injection of cash to scale up vaccinations, which are being targeted at men in high-risk groups. And outside Guy’s Hospital in London yesterday, a three-hour queue snaked around the building to get a jab – with those waiting for their turn almost all gay and bisexual men.
This makes sense: all the evidence suggests that the outbreak is highly concentrated among men who have sex with men, and the virus is overwhelmingly transmitted through sexual contact. But even as that has become abundantly clear, there has still been a curious reticence in much of the public health messaging about saying so.
