I’M SENSING THE SAME FEAR, APPETITE FOR INFORMATION
It feels like 1981. A health crisis that calls for urgency and action is with us. Our experience with the HIV epidemic has prepared us to move swiftly in ending the monkeypox epidemic.
I spent the first 17 years of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. Thirteen of those years (1985-1998) were spent facilitating discussion groups and helping produce community forums about HIV- and AIDSrelated topics. I worked mostly with gay men. I cannot speak to what happened in San Diego in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, but my experience in San Francisco provides an interesting perspective.
A group of us in the Stop AIDS Project focused on providing up-to-date information and listening to people’s concerns and needs. We worked with gay men and other communities within and outside of the LGBTQ community. Our focus was on prevention, and especially what individuals can do to prevent HIV.
What I’m hearing today from gay men in San Diego is the same sense of fear and the same appetite for information.
Today’s fear simply uses different thoughts and words: “When will there be enough vaccine? Is one shot enough? Can I get treatment? Is it OK to hug someone, pat them on the back, or shake hands? Can I get treatment? When can I have sex again?”
They have heard this or that and want to know if it is true.
I hope people have learned what safe(r) sex means in relation to HIV prevention. We now need to focus not just on vaccines and treatments, but on how to get the word out about safe activities to follow to avoid contracting monkeypox.
HIV/AIDS and monkeypox are diseases that disproportionately affect gay men. Of course, we can expect the world’s bigots to use that information to mischaracterize gay men and diminish the importance of fighting monkeypox in other communities. Conspiracy theories are a part of AIDS history, and monkeypox conspiracies are with us today. We have experience fighting misinformation and stigma in general, and AIDS stigma in particular.
We must put into practice what we have learned to help us fight monkeypox stigma and misinformation.
We cannot be distracted from doing what needs to be done to bring this outbreak to an end.
In the early days of AIDS, we had slower means of communication — newspapers, television and radio. Safe sex guidelines were stapled to telephone poles and taped on shop windows. Condoms and information were found in bars and bathhouses. Some of us in San Francisco spent our Saturdays, Sundays or evenings on the street talking to people about HIV and AIDS.
These techniques are still useful today, but now communication methods are different.
Posts on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites have changed how we get the news and communicate with each other.
There are two more very important differences between these epidemics. AIDS was a novel syndrome. Figuring out what it was and how to test and treat it came slowly. Monkeypox is a known pathogen, with vaccines and treatment.
Death is different.
Four deaths had been attributed to monkeypox globally as of Monday. From June to December of 1981, there were 130 deaths in the United States from what would come to be called AIDS.
While it is not 1981, the sense of urgency to stop this epidemic is palpable.
Even with quality information, vaccines, treatments, help from government agencies and health care providers, individual participation in prevention is key.
As individuals, it’s not likely that we can increase the vaccine supply, but we can make a commitment to stay informed, keep our friends informed, and not engage in activities that will spread monkeypox.
When we follow through on that commitment, we have tremendous power. The question is, will we use it?
We must put into practice what we have learned to help us fight monkeypox misinformation and stigma. We cannot be distracted from doing what needs to be done to bring this outbreak to an end.
Turner is a long-term survivor of HIV/AIDS, chair and managing director of POZabilities, and a fabric artist who lives in San Diego.