Biden Mpox Advisor Warns About ‘Stigma’: ‘One Person’s Idea of Risk Is Another Person’s Idea of a Great Festival or Friday Night’

National Mpox Response Deputy Coordinator Dr. Demetre Daskalakis expressed his concerns about the stigmatization of the viral illness previously known as monkeypox on MSNBC Sunday morning, explaining that “one person’s idea of risk is another person’s idea of a great festival or Friday night.”

Host Jonathan Capehart first asked Daskalakis why public health authorities are “so focused on gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men?” when it comes to mpox transmission.

“Great question, so 95 percent of the cases in the U.S. have actually been among cisgender men, mainly gay, bisexual, men who have sex with men,” began Daskalakis. “So although anyone can get mpox, the epidemiology is telling us that if we have to focus our work, this is the right population for us to focus on.”

Capehart called himself “a child of the second wave of HIV/AIDS” and observed that “stigma was a big thing, it remains a big thing but was huge then with LGBTQ community” before inquiring “what role” stigma plays “in the mpox era.”

Daskalakis responded thusly:

So I work in HIV normally and I’ll tell you that I always say that I’ve never made an HIV diagnosis in someone that hasn’t somehow related to stigma. I think mpox is the same. Stigma tends to be a barrier to testing, a barrier to vaccination and so really addressing stigma intentionally and making sure we get the word out in a way that supports people’s joy as opposed to calling them risky.

So I think, you know, one of the things to think about is that one person’s idea of risk is another person’s idea of a great festival or Friday night, for that matter, So we have to sort of embrace that with joy and make sure that folks know how to keep themselves safe.

“It’s a way of talking about it,” observed Capehart. “It’s not just quote-unquote ‘behavior’ it’s a way of talking about how to protect yourself.”

Watch above via MSNBC.