If knowledge is power, a Pacific Pride Foundation–sponsored virtual town hall on Wednesday evening gave everyone watching and listening the power to avoid monkeypox and to gain a better understanding of the sometimes very painful disease. Moderated by Kristin Flickinger, executive director of Pacific Pride, the talk included Santa Barbara County Public Health's Dr. Henning Ansorg, infectious disease specialist Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons, Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinic's Dr. Charles Fenzi, UCSB's Student Health medical director Dr. Erin Moore, and Planned Parenthood's chief medical officer Dr. Maryam Guiahi.
Flickinger described the hurt and angry feelings that had arisen among the LGBTQ+ community about a disease that inevitably raised echoes of the deadly 1980s AIDS epidemic and how the United States ignored it for too long. Monkeypox is also an infectious disease that was having an impact on the community of men who have sex with men, she said, asking everyone to have conversations that were honest and avoided stigmatizing anyone. Was it fair to compare monkeypox to HIV in the 1980s? she asked.
Dr. Fenzi was the first to respond, stating that who they needed to reach was anyone who could be exposed. It wasn't just a disease among men, he said. In California, 82 women were diagnosed with monkeypox, and around the nation, eight infants were diagnosed. He was concerned for caregivers, who needed to wear personal protection. And he agreed that this was indeed like the AIDS epidemic, which he recalled — making a benedictory sign of the cross — affected men and women alike, not just one group of people.