Gay Men Protest Biden Administration’s Monkeypox Failure

Scott Wiener (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
Jeff Chiu / Associated Press
Joel B. Pollak

Demonstrators in San Francisco protested Monday against what they called the federal government’s “failure” to provide enough monkeypox vaccine to prevent the outbreak from becoming a major problem, particularly in the gay community.

The disease, which is transmitted through prolonged and intense physical contact, often results in a fever and in unsightly blisters. It is rarely fatal, but is uncomfortable and can last for several weeks.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported:

Several San Francisco LGBTQ advocacy organizations descended on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ regional office Monday to protest what they said was the federal government’s anemic response to the growing monkeypox outbreak and the lack of available vaccines.

…

Anyone can contract monkeypox, though to date many “reported cases have been among gay and bisexual men,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

…

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, lambasted the federal government’s response to the outbreak, calling the current lack of vaccines “avoidable,” and adding that health experts have long warned about the potential for monkeypox to spread.

When President Joe Biden campaigned in 2020, he attacked the Trump administration for what he called a failed approach to the coronavirus pandemic. He and former President Barack Obama claimed that Trump had ignored a pandemic “playbook” the previous administration had left behind.

However, Breitbart News — which seemed to be the lone outlet that actually read the so-called “playbook” — reported that it was less than advertised, with few pages dealing with an international pandemic, and mostly summarizing other documents.

In 2021, with criticism of the Biden administration’s own response to the coronavirus pandemic mounting, then-White House press secretary Jennifer Psaki said that there was, in fact, no “playbook” for a new disease.

Demonstrators in San Francisco were concerned that the Biden administration had failed to provide enough vaccines to prevent the monkeypox virus from becoming endemic within the community, noting that a vaccine had been developed in 2019 but was then “ignored.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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