As places like San Francisco and New York state declare the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency, there’s a major question: how to talk about the virus in the first place.
Although anyone can get infected, the outbreak appears to have largely affected men who have sex with other men. That’s led some public health officials to question how to raise awareness about the spread without making the early public health mistakes of the HIV/AIDS crisis when gay and bisexual men were stigmatized and discriminated against.
It’s a tricky conversation but it matters, said Dr. Joseph Lee, a professor of health education and promotion at East Carolina University who has studied public health messaging.
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Fixating on how the virus impacts different populations can be unproductive and unhelpful, Lee says.
On one end, it tends to make people who are disproportionately impacted feel fatalistic and less likely to seek help, he added. On the other end, it makes those who have been less impacted inaccurately believe they are less vulnerable.
“You can recognize that there are differences and that’s important to do, but it doesn’t mean it has to be the emphasis or message of the campaign. It just tells you who the messaging needs to go to,” Lee said.
