‘Trying To Achieve Vaccine Equity’: Liberal City Plans To Factor Race Into Monkeypox Vaccine Decisions

A top health official in San Francisco said the city was using race as a criterion to determine priority for monkeypox vaccines during a Wednesday CNN appearance.

“Latinx men, Latino men in San Francisco are disproportionately impacted,” Dr. Susan Philip, a health officer for the City and County of San Francisco, told CNN host Alisyn Camerota. “So we’re working with our community organizations to give them appointment slots where people don’t have to wait in line and we are trying to achieve vaccine equity that way so everyone has a chance to get the vaccine.”

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San Francisco declared a public health emergency over monkeypox July 26, while California made a similar declaration Aug. 1. As of Aug. 3, 6,326 cases of monkeypox were reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Philip also discussed trying to avoid stigmatizing people with the disease.

“From day one we were thinking about stigma and particularly this city, with its history of HIV/AIDS activism and advocacy from the community and alongside the Department of Public Health and our academic partners at UCSF, this is something we always think about,” Philip said.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.