ABOUT .
Since May 2022, there has been an outbreak of MPOX (previously called Monkeypox) among queer and trans people and our sexual networks in large cities around the world, including New York City. There are vaccines that offer protection, but because they are in limited supply, it is not possible to vaccinate everyone. We don’t have enough information to use our limited supplies efficiently. To do that, we would need to know how queer and trans people and our sexual networks are interconnected in New York City.
MPX NYC, a campaign of Rapid Epidemiologic Study of Prevalence, Network, and Demographics of MPOX Infection (RESPND-MI), is a LGBTQ+ community-led survey of MPOX symptoms and networks among queer and trans people in New York City. MPX NYC encourages queer and trans people to anonymously participate in a survey that collects de-identified data on MPOX symptoms and locations of group sex and other activities with close, physical, or skin-to-skin contact. Additionally, the survey offers participants information on how to prevent MPOX, as well as an opportunity to send a link to their friends and sexual partners so that they may also anonymously participate in the survey. The results of this community-based participatory research yield a map of the sexual networks of queer and trans people, allowing for purposeful interventions to stop the outbreak of MPOX.
Findings.
MPOX RESOURCES FOR AND BY QUEER AND TRANS COMMUNITIES.
Click below to access community-led tools for prevention, vaccines, treatment, and policy.
RESPND-MI Study Team.
A collective of queer and trans experts in clinical medicine, epidemiology, biostatistics, virology, activism, policy, marketing, and communications innovating community-based participatory research.
Keletso Makofane, MPH, PhD
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Jennifer Barnes-Balenciaga
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Nicholas Diamond, MPH
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Seema Kara, MPH
CO-INVESTIGATOR
James Krellenstein
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Elle Lett, PhD, MA, MBiostat
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Ken Nadolski, MPH
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Cody Nolan, MD
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Joseph Osmundson, PhD
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Robert Pitts, MD
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Grant Roth, MPH
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Sudipta Saha, MS
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Martez Smith, MSW
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Nguyen Tran, MPH, PhD
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Christian Urrutia
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Antón Castellanos Usigli, MPH, PhD
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Chris Wyman
CO-INVESTIGATOR
RESPND-MI Reference Group.
An advisory council for the RESPND-MI Study Team.
Judith D. Auerbach, PhD
University of California, San Francisco
Lisa Berkman, PhD
Harvard University
Forrest W. Crawford, PhD
Yale University
William C. Goedel, PhD
Brown University
Gregg Gonsalves, PhD
Yale University
Ian W. Holloway, PhD, LCSW, MPH
University of California, Los Angeles
Louise Ivers, MB, BCh, MD, MPH, DTMH
Massachusetts General Hospital
Lawrence C. Long, MCom, PhD
Boston University
Kenneth Mayer, MD
The Fenway Institute
Gregorio Millett, MPH
amfAR
Eric J. Tchetgen Tchetgen, PhD
University of Pennsylvania
IN THE NEWS.
-
America Has a Public Health Messaging Problem (The Body)
Keletso Makofane (Public Health Post)
Mpox has faded in the US. Who deserves the credit? (AP News)
39 Reasons to Love New York Right now. (Curbed)
Last Call for the Monkeypox Vaccine Van (The New York Times)
Our Monkeypox Response Has Failed to Use Lessons Learned From HIV and COVID-19 (TheBody)
Out100 2022: LGBTQ+ Policy Makers and Advocates Changing the World (Out)
SA researcher makes top 100 LBGTQI+ influencer list for monkeypox work (Sunday Times)
Of note Fall 2022: Toward an equitable monkeypox response (Harvard Public Health)
Access and Abandonment in the Monkeypox Response w/ Keletso Makofane (Death Panel)
We Can’t Fight Monkeypox “Ourselves” (Dame Magazine)
Monkeypox Vaccine Plan Prods Cities and States to Adopt New Dosing Regimen (The New York Times)
We Have the Potential to Prevent Endemic Monkeypox (Boston University)
Talking about monkeypox? Then you should be talking about sex (NPR)
Erasing the stigma of monkeypox (WBAL TV)
How to Fight Monkeypox: LGBTQ Activists on Stigma and Centering Community (Teen Vogue)
Cutting Monkeypox Vaccine Dosage Is No Easy Fix, Officials Say (Bloomberg)
BIOMEDICAL RACISM, QUEER THEORY, AND THE MONKEYPOX EPIDEMIC (The Intercept)
Monkeypox history and the queer male community's response (The United States of Anxiety)
With support on monkeypox hard to come by, queer communities turn to one another (STAT)
America’s New Monkeypox Strategy Rests on a Single Study (The Atlantic)
What To Know About Monkeypox And Big Queer Dance Parties (BuzzFeed)
How Can You Get Vaccinated for Monkeypox? (Very Well Health)
Monkeypox Declared Public Health Emergency. Now What? (NPR)
An open letter to the Biden administration on monkeypox (Harvard Public Health Magazine)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
White House Declares Monkeypox a Public Health Emergency (MSNBC)
The US monkeypox response is failing queer men (VOX)
Q&A on Monkeypox (World Health Organization)
The Agony of an Early Case of Monkeypox (The New Yorker)
How the Monkeypox Virus Does—and Doesn't—Spread (Time)
Local health authorities race to contain the highly contagious monkeypox virus (PBS NewsHour)
Contending with the monkeypox outbreak (Harvard University)
In the City and State, Monkeypox is a Public Health Emergency (The Brian Lehrer Show)
Monkeypox is reminding gay men of the early HIV/AIDS days (The Washington Post)
Critics say 'monkeypox' is a racist name. But it's not going away anytime soon (NPR)
Monkeypox: Old Disease, New Fears (Boston University)
Remembering HIV and COVID-19 in Response to Monkeypox (Boston University)
There’s a Monkeypox Testing Bottleneck (WIRED)
Canada reports 77 confirmed cases of monkeypox (CBC)
Monkeypox: Experts at AIDS conference say the current global response is not enough (Montreal Gazette)
It’s unlikely that you’ll catch monkeypox on the T: Answering questions about the virus (The Boston Globe)
LGBTQ community confronts 'excruciating' monkeypox -- and its stigma (RFI)
America Should Have Been Able to Handle Monkeypox (The Atlantic)
WHO recommends men who have sex with men reduce sex partners to limit monkeypox risk (STAT)
As Monkeypox Spread in New York, 300,000 Vaccine Doses Sat in Denmark (The New York Times)
The Best Way to Slow the Spread of Monkeypox (TIME)
“Immense Frustration”: Monkeypox Spreads Amid Slow U.S. Response, Few Vaccines; WHO Declares Emergency (Democracy Now!)
The Monkeypox Vaccine Hunger Games Are On (New York Magazine)
Ring Vaccination Beat Smallpox. Could It Work for Monkeypox? (WIRED)
How we talk about monkeypox could protect lives (The Seattle Times)
Monkeypox Virus Infection in Humans across 16 Countries — April–June 2022 (New England Journal of Medicine)
Six Ways We Can Have Safer Sex in the Time of Monkeypox (POZ)
Health advocates tell Congress they need $100 million to halt monkeypox (National Journal)
Monkeypox patients should not be left to suffer when an FDA-approved drug could help (STAT)
Monkeypox Testing and Vaccination in U.S. Have Been Vastly Inadequate, Experts Say (Scientific American)
What You Need to Know About the Monkeypox Outbreak (The Brian Lehrer Show)
Concerns About Monkeypox Cases Growing in the U.S. (WJLA-TV)
Monkeypox Vaccine Rollout Is Marred by Glitches in New York (The New York Times)
Homophobic misinformation is making it harder to contain the spread of monkeypox (MIT Technology Review)
To respond to monkeypox, health officials’ playbook informed by failures of the AIDS crisis (PBS NewsHour)
U.S. has 17M monkeypox vaccine doses stuck in Denmark as NYC scrambles to get shots into arms: ‘Make the vaccine available to everyone’ (New York Daily News)
Biden admin snafu leaves 1 million monkeypox doses in Denmark (New York Post)
As Monkeypox Spreads, a Campaign to Warn the Public Gains Urgency (The New York Times)
‘Testing bottleneck’ for monkeypox puts hope of containment at risk, experts warn (STAT)
Will the Specter of Monkeypox Affect Pride Weekend in New York? (The New York Times)
White House pledges more vaccines for monkeypox infections (PBS NewsHour)
I Have Monkeypox — Here's What It's Like And What You Should Know (BuzzFeed)
US monkeypox cases rise to 460: 4 outbreak updates (Becker’s Hospital Review)
Advocates warn US at risk of losing control on monkeypox (The Hill)
Editorial: Biden & co. dropping ball on monkeypox (Boston Herald)
Tens of thousands of monkeypox vaccines rushed to clinics (The Washington Post)
A Monkeypox Vaccine Is Now Available for New Yorkers Who May Be at Risk (The New York Times)
Monkeypox vaccine rollout begins in SF and nationwide (Bay Area Reporter)
LGBTQ Pride events offer a make-or-break moment for monkeypox (NBC News)
‘This Is a Recipe for Disaster’ New York’s monkeypox vaccination drive is too little, too late (New York Magazine)
Biden Administration to Distribute Tens of Thousands of Monkeypox Vaccines (The Daily Beast)
Is the LGBT Community Doing Enough to Fight Monkeypox? (POZ)
How Worried Should You Be About Monkeypox? (The New York Times)
Monkeypox Testing Shows the US Learned Little From the Covid-19 Pandemic (Bloomberg)
Monkeypox in the U.S.: An Update for Clinicians & the LGBTQ Community (Infectious Disease Society of America)
Epidemiologist On How to Stop Spread of Monkeypox (MSNBC)
Monkeypox Outbreak Growing Around the World (MSNBC)
As Monkeypox Spreads, U.S. Plans a Vaccination Campaign (The New York Times)
Monkeypox outbreak in U.S. is bigger than the CDC reports. Testing is 'abysmal' (NPR)
Why the monkeypox outbreak is mostly affecting men who have sex with men (Science)
Monkeypox Vaccines Are Too Gnarly for the Masses (The Atlantic)
How the hard lessons of the AIDS crisis are shaping the response to the monkeypox outbreak (STAT)
To Fight Monkeypox, Remember the Lessons of Covid and H.I.V. (The New York Times)
VOLUNTEER.
The RESPND-MI Study Team seeks volunteers to support MPX NYC.
CONTACT US.
-
RESPND-MI Principal Investigator
keletso.makofane@gmail.com