What A Day - A Gay Doctor Talks Monkeypox

Episode Date: August 17, 2022

The CDC recently reported that new monkeypox cases in New York City appear to be slowing down, though new cases are slowly rising nationwide. Dr. Carlton Thomas, an advocate for queer health and sex positivity, joins us to talk about the stigma surrounding the disease, and safer sex practices for people who are at higher risk for exposure.And in headlines: President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, former Trump White House lawyers were interviewed by the FBI over sensitive documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago, and millions of Americans can soon buy a hearing aid without a prescription.Show Notes:Doctor Carlton (TikTok: @drcarlton) - https://www.tiktok.com/@doctorcarltonMonkeypox Vaccination Access Project - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QO55TTeO6ZKrC0yw_LvIrKU56wb1r7rX9kAW_WsLLtQ/Vote Save America: Fuck Bans Action Plan – https://votesaveamerica.com/roe/Crooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/whataday/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday 

It's Wednesday, August 17th. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And I'm Josie Duffy Rice, and this is What A Day. Hoping that Liz Cheney continues to fight alongside the resistance as an unemployed millionaire in Wyoming. I mean, what else does she got to do? She's got a bunch of money and she's got a bunch of time. She could hike.

There's some real hiking in Wyoming. She could be a resistance mom. The worst kind of resistance mom, you know? Yeah. No, I mean, is there a good kind? Good point. On today's show, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, plus the FBI interviewed two former White House lawyers about the classified documents found in Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. But first, we turn now to the latest on monkeypox. In some welcome news, the CDC recently reported that new cases in New York City, where more than 2,000 people have already been infected, appear to be slowing down.

Although nationwide, new cases are slowly rising. Good for New York, bad for everywhere else. Yes. Meanwhile, there is still a limited supply of vaccines and a whole lot of drama getting these shots into arms. It's almost as if we learned nothing from COVID-19 because this vaccine rollout is really a shitshow as well. Yeah, there have been multiple instances where shipments of the monkeypox vaccine never made it to their intended final destination. For example, about 5,000 doses that were supposed

to end up in Florida somehow ended up in Oklahoma. Okay. Very different places. So it doesn't feel like an easy mistake to make. Honestly, who hasn't written down Oklahoma when they meant Florida? And some 800 shots that were sent to Minnesota were deemed unusable because the shipment was in transit for too long, dwindling the vaccines past their expiration date. Yeah. Josie has some thoughts on expiration dates. I do.

And I just want to say, didn't we learn that expiration dates are kind of made up? I'm like, I feel like a slightly expired vaccine is better than none. In all seriousness, as frustrations about the lack of resources to keep people safe continue to mount, there are also efforts underway to stop the stigma surrounding this disease. So Josie, can you tell us a little more about what's happening on that front? Many advocates say we need to change the name. That discussion has been going on for a while because critics say it's misleading since

the disease didn't start with monkeys. Good point. Yeah, fair. And the World Health Organization is on board with changing the name too. The WHO actually asked the public to submit recommendations for some new names. Nobody told me this. Why would you ever do that? See?

Opposite reactions. My first thought was, why didn't anybody tell me? We shouldn't be the ones. You have that job for a reason. I will think of some great names for monkeypox. So some of the names that came in were serious and others were not so serious, Priyanka. A few of our favorites include poxy McPoxface and Trump 22. And that is an acronym for, quote, toxic rash of unrecognized mysterious providence of 2022. Oh, okay then. Okay. The word providence, quote, toxic rash of unrecognized mysterious providence of 2022.

Oh, okay then. Okay. The word providence, we're doing a lot with that. Doing a lot of work there. Yeah. You know what? I thought we were trying to stop the stigma. I feel like this is causing a whole different kind.

I don't know if it is. If you want to stop the stigma, you don't call it poxy McPox face, you know? Yeah. No, that just doesn't feel the most helpful. But at least you're not involving like some random animal that doesn't have anything to do with it. Yeah, monkey is fairly harmless as far as I knew. True. Okay, but on a serious note, changing the name really can only do so much to properly educate people about the disease and make sure that they stay safe. Because unfortunately, it is hitting one community especially hard, and that is a group

health officials dubbed men who have sex with men. So we wanted to speak with an expert on this topic to cut through some of the misinformation that is out there and continues to kind of swirl. So yesterday, Josie, I had the chance to speak with Dr. Carlton Thomas, or Dr. Carlton as he's known on TikTok and Instagram. Dr. Carlton practices in San Diego and is an advocate for queer health and sex positivity. He's a member of the LGBTQ plus community himself. And he speaks really openly and honestly about, you know, a ton of different issues. Like they range from everything, including brace yourself, anal fissures from sex. It feels like you're pooping razor blades and can put you out of commission for weeks to months and even require surgery. Who's got time for that?

But lately, he has been using his social media platform to spread the word about monkeypox vaccination in recent months. So I started out by asking him who is most at risk for the disease and why. Over 95 percent of cases are being spread through men who have sex with men community. So gay, bisexual men, trans folks, mostly through sexual activity. It can be spread other ways. And that's where I think a lot of the right wing media is twisting this. When kids get infected or animals get infected, they automatically jump to, oh, gay people are having sex with kids and animals.

Not the case. Right. And I can put a lot of ease in the fear of the community right now and the hysteria because the vast majority of infections are happening that way. Yeah, there are a few cases here and there, at least right now, a few cases here and there of other people getting it. But it's very much the minority of the situation right now. And I hope that we can keep it that way. Right. Definitely. So how does the panic kind of in the general population about this make things more difficult for the LGBTQ plus community? When there is panic among the general community about an infection happening in the LGBTQ community, there is discrimination and stigma that happens that there's already been violence against gay people over monkeypox.

There's a couple in Washington, D.C. who got attacked. And then on top of that, I've even heard straight people say, oh, I went to an Elton John concert with my gay friends. And then after the concert, I was supposed to go to a house party. And the people at the house party said, we don't want you here because you've been with the gays. We don't want monkeypox. So that kind of stupidity and narrow mindedness is harking us back to the days of early AIDS. Right. On the other hand, you know, the messaging has been a real challenge as well, because the CDC has said that officials should emphasize that anyone can get monkeypox because anybody can. This isn't just geared towards one subset of people and they'd want to avoid contributing to the stigma. What is your

take on that? Well, I think we have to be careful with that as well. The messaging needs to be clear to our community. Most of the cases are happening. So we need to step up and take action to protect ourselves, to get vaccinated and to take a pause until we can get vaccinated and get enough antibodies in our system to be safe. So while I understand the fear and the stigma, at the same time, we also need to be personally responsible to do our part to protect ourselves and each other in our community. Totally. And from your perspective, what's the best way to talk about monkeypox without contributing to the stigma? Talking about the way it's actually spread, you know, how it's mostly through close, intimate contact, whether it's sexual or cuddling or prolonged skin to skin contact.

So far, the CDC is saying that it's happening through skin to skin contact during sex as sort of the main driver here. But there's evidence that it may be more the fluids. We're still trying to figure that out. The data is horrible on all fronts right now. But talking about practicing safer sex methods, reducing partners, taking a pause, getting vaccinated, remaining upbeat and positive about it. And I think when the messaging comes from someone like me within the gay community, who is a gay man, who is a doctor, who is very sex positive on the internet. Yeah. When it comes from a voice like mine, people don't take it as stigma and homophobia.

They take it as, hey, there's one of us saying that this is what we should do. So this is what we should do. Yeah, it seems a little bit different. I mean, earlier this summer, the World Health Organization was urging men to sleep with fewer men. And I am not in the LGBTQ community.

I'm not in the business of telling people what they should and shouldn't be doing in terms of that aspect of their life. But what's your realistic advice to your patients who are queer about their sexual practices right now? Do you have any for them or no? Yeah, I think avoiding bathhouses, avoiding orgies, avoiding random sex hookups. I think that you can still have sex in a healthy way.

You could build a little sex pod of people who are going to stay true to the sex pod and not stray out of it so that you keep each other safe. Or if there is an infection within the pod, at least it stays within the pod. So masturbation, cam sex, virtual sex, phone sex, it's just sticking to your boyfriend or your partner even instead of playing more randomly, just in the temporary side of things until we get past this hump of needing more vaccine coverage. Sure. And there's been this discourse kind of online about whether or not monkeypox should be classified as an STI, a sexually transmitted infection, infectious disease. Dr. Joseph Cheruby recently tweeted, quote,

the whole discourse of whether monkeypox is an STI or not wouldn't matter if we didn't attach so much stigma to STIs and sexual health in general. So can you walk us through, you know, whether or not you find that to be a productive discussion? I think that what he said nails it on the head. We attach so much stigma and shame to STIs when they're just infections. You know, it can happen to anyone. So it's no judgment on anyone. But because society tend to put that stigma and shame on STIs, that's why this is a problem. It's all semantics. Who cares if it's an STI or not? Right now it's being sexually spread. It can be spread other ways, but that still doesn't change my recommendations to my community.

And good news today, there's numbers that have shown that the curve is flattening and going down in New York City. Oh, wow. And in Europe. So things are happening. People are paying attention. People are getting vaccinated. People are starting to make those behavior changes. So we're on the downward swing. If we could continue what we're doing now and don't get lackadaisical like we did with COVID, I think we can really nip this in the bud. Yeah, you are bringing up my next question. So, I mean, we learned pretty much nothing from COVID and we currently lack the resources here in the US

to fight monkeypox. And one of your most commonly asked questions right now is just where can I find a vaccine for this? So for the people listening who are maybe wondering this for themselves, what is your answer? Right now, most places are just vaccinating men who have sex with men. There are some places that are opening up a little bit more to lab

workers and health care workers who deal with people who have monkeypox. There are some centralized sites that you can use. StopMonkeypox.org is a Google Doc that has centralized vaccine clinics around the country that an Instagrammer called Grant Roth put up. And that's been amazing. Chicago has its own site that a gay guy who's an engineer who had COVID and was bored during the pandemic put up Chicago.care, where you can get any appointment in any section of Chicago for vaccines and for testing. Also on my Instagram, a lot of people feed me clinics that I post in my stories. And I also post in my highlights section, monkeypox123456, that you can go through

and try to find a vaccine clinic that way. But the best bet is through your local health department or state health department, go to their internet portals, your city health department. That's where you're gonna find most of the vaccine clinics. And Josie, that was my conversation with Dr. Carlton Thomas. We'll link to some of those resources in our show notes, and we'll be sure to keep

following Monkeypox News. But that is the latest for now. We'll be back after some ads. Let's get to some headlines. Headlines. President Biden signed the massive $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act into law yesterday. It deals with more than inflation, though. It tackles health care costs as well and is one of the biggest advancements on climate change in decades. With this law, the American people won and the special interests lost. But we should note that to get this bill passed, Democrats did make concessions that allow for more oil and gas drilling in the Gulf and in Alaska. Make sure to get the full rundown of what is in the new law on the latest episode of Hot Take. There is a lot in there. A lot sounds great on paper,

but you know, healthy skepticism, always a good thing. Absolutely. So there's a really tragic story to tell you about in Western Florida, where an unnamed 16-year-old girl is about 11 weeks pregnant and seeking an abortion. On Monday, a state appeals court ruled against the girl because as one judge put it,

she is not quote unquote mature enough to decide. Florida has a law that says pregnant minors seeking an abortion must get consent from a parent or guardian. But the girl in this case has no parents, and she said her guardian was, quote, fine with her decision. On Monday, the appeals court agreed with the lower court that found that the girl could not make this decision about her own body. The judges also got technical on this child by saying that while the guardian's OK was written into her petition, it was not valid because it was in the wrong place on the form. That is insane. Like, absolutely insane. The girl can appeal her case again, but the literal clock is ticking. She's 11 weeks pregnant now. And last month, after Roe was overturned, Florida enacted a law that bans abortions

after 15 weeks. It's a horrifying, horrifying story. A follow-up on the mysterious Mar-a-Lago papers, former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy Patrick Philbin were interviewed by the FBI about how more than a dozen boxes of classified documents ended up at Trump's residence in Palm Beach. The New York Times reports that they were tapped to deal with the National Archives about handing over presidential documents just before Trump ended his term. The archives reached out to Philbin when they noticed that some things were missing,

but Trump reportedly sealed his fate by telling both men, quote, it's not theirs, it's mine. Great. That is how things are decided, I suppose. FBI has contacted multiple people he used to work for Trump when he was president, as well as members of his current staff, though Cipollone and Philbin are, as far as we know, the most senior former Trump officials that the agency has questioned so far. Sending shockwaves through the industry of soundwaves was a decision yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration

to allow some hearing aids to be sold over the counter without a prescription. The rule change could take effect as soon as October, and it could have a huge impact on expanding access to hearing aids, which are so expensive that 80% of the 30 million American adults with hearing loss go without them. 80%. The FDA estimates that the new rule could reduce the price of hearing aids by about $2,800 a pair by offering flexibility to consumers and encouraging competition among manufacturers. Who knew that hearing aids were so expensive? Yeah. In the process of reading this headline, I learned that hearing aids actually range from $1,500 to $5,000, which is crazy. Really remarkable.

Yeah. Like, that seems like something we should all know. And on the topic of expanding access to cutting-edge medical technologies, this week Scotland became the first country in the world to offer free tampons and other period products to people who need them. This is part of a global effort to end, quote, period poverty, a term that describes the inability to afford menstrual products and the resultant economic vulnerability experienced by people who menstruate.

Scotland's parliament approved legislation to fight period poverty back in 2020, and now people will be able to just grab the products that they need in the country's pharmacies. You could try this in the U.S. too, and if the people at Walgreens give you a hard time, just remind them that you are abiding by Scottish law. That's so convenient because that's what I say every time I take something from Walgreens anyway. So just grab it off the shelves. You're fine.

Grab it off the shelves. The Scots said it was fine. Yeah, this is an amazing, amazing development for them. And I wish that was the case for us because that stuff is expensive. It's so expensive. It would be so smart and convenient. To have them everywhere, to have them readily accessible and for free. Right. Incredible. That would is expensive. It's so expensive. It would be so smart and convenient. To have them everywhere, to have them readily accessible and for free.

Right. Incredible. That would be remarkable. In Australia, a trend even more controversial than quote unquote quiet quitting is quiet working five secret jobs while you are also the prime minister. This is the craziest story. This trend was apparently pioneered by the country's former leader, Scott Morrison, who it has just been revealed was also officially the Minister of Health,

Finance, Home Affairs, Treasury, and Industry between March 2020 and May 2021. That is over a year. And a time that not many people were ramping up the amount of work that they were trying to do, really working hard from home. Like, that was just not my vibe. So our first question is obviously, how could this happen? And our second question is, does Australia's government have, like, rules? Or, like, is there anything written down? Is there a law? Do they just make up as they go? Is it vibes?

I like that for them. I just have questions about, like, how the government works. Morrison is defending this move, citing the extraordinary circumstance of the pandemic and saying, quote, I took the precaution of being given authority to administer various departments of state should the need arise due to incapacity of a minister or in the national interest. OK. It's like, well, those are two different things. Very. Incapacity of a minister is kind of specific.

In the national interest feels like you can interpret that however you want, baby. Any way you want. Yeah. You can interpret that however you want, baby. Any way you want. Apparently, Morrison was indeed sworn into these cabinet roles, but without the knowledge of the public or the knowledge of the ministers whose jobs he was taking over. Incredible. So bold. So crazy. Wild.

Wild. Morrison lost his election this May and was replaced in his successor's slamming his turn as Australia's first mega minister. Current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said yesterday, quote, this has been government by deception. Barry. Is everything in Australia an unpaid internship, including being prime minister?

Because that is the vibe I'm getting. Perhaps. And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. Tune in to the Keep It episode, That Thing You Xanadu, as Ira and Lewis are hopelessly devoted to highlighting the legacy of the one and

only Olivia Newton-John. They also discuss their favorite dance songs, HBO Max's disastrous rebrand, and more. Tune in to new episodes of Keep It every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, give up one of your five jobs as an Australian minister, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just low hearing aid prices like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Cricut.com slash subscribe. I'm Josie Duffy Rice. I'm Priyanka Arabindi.

And continue abiding by Scottish law. Free tampons for everybody. Walk into your local stores and just grab them. If we all do it, there's nothing they can do. And also invite us to Scotland so we can learn first hand. Yeah, we'd do so well there. Live What A Day in Scotland. Oh my God.

Incredible. Great time. What A Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance, Jazzy Marine, and Raven Yamamoto are our associate producers. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our executive producer is Leo Duran. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.