Andy Slavitt is an American businessman and healthcare advisor who served as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services acting administrator from March 2015 to January 2017 and as a temporary Senior Advisor to the COVID-19 Response Coordinator in the Biden administration.
He was on the pandemic response team, which helps explain the terrible response out of the Biden administration. His judgment hasn’t gotten any better on the monkeypox issue.
Slavitt tweeted, “The myth that sexual activity is the cause of monkeypox and that reducing it is a valid strategy for managing a disease does not, on its face, make any sense.”
The former Biden adviser went to the bias issue, “If this isn’t clear, imagine this being said about you.”
What’s clear is he’s 100% wrong.
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NBC News, among other news sources, dispels his claim it’s a myth. Most of the afflicted are gay men.
1: The myth that sexual activity is the cause of monkeypox & that reducing it is a valid strategy for managing a disease does not, on its face, make any sense.
If this isn’t clear, imagine this being said about you.
— Andy Slavitt 💙💛 (@ASlavitt) July 24, 2022
Researchers examined 528 cases of monkeypox across 16 countries and found 98% of those infected were gay or bisexual. The risk to the general public is very low. 95% of the cases were likely transmitted through sexual close contact. Anal sex itself is the major source of transmission.
Most afflicted are white, 41% have HIV, and the average age is 38 (18-68).
These results are consistent with the study by the British Health Security Agency.
NBC NEWS
For the new study, a consortium of scores of researchers pooled data on 528 cases of monkeypox that were diagnosed between April 27 and June 24 at 43 sites in 16 countries. These cases included 84 people (16%) in the Americas and 444 (84%) in Europe, Israel, and Australia.
All the cases were among men, including one transgender man, 98% of whom identified as gay or bisexual. This stark demographic finding is in keeping with data on the outbreak from around the world, such as a recent report from the British Health Security Agency finding that of the 699 monkeypox cases for which there was available information, 97% were in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. New York City, the U.S. epicenter, has seen only one woman diagnosed with the virus out of 639 cases confirmed through July 19.
The British Study Was Consistent
Accordingly, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has characterized the risk of monkeypox to the general public, in particular, those not engaging in sex with multiple partners, as “very low.” In a recent meeting, Dr. Agam Rao, a medical officer in the CDC’s Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, used the same words to characterize the general public’s risk.
In the new global study, the men had a median age of 38 and ranged between 18 and 68 years old. Three-quarters are white, and 41% have HIV.
Despite some public health officials, including those at the CDC, cautioning the public about the risk of household transmission of monkeypox, just three of the 528 cases, or 0.6%, were believed to have been acquired through such means. And just four, or 0.8%, were considered to have been transmitted through nonsexual close contact.
The study authors reported that 95% of the cases were likely transmitted through sexual close contact. What’s more, their paper offers strong new evidence that anal sex itself, although not necessarily ejaculation, is a major source of transmission.
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