SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – San Francisco has declared a state of emergency as monkeypox continues to spread in the city and across the Bay Area.
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The San Francisco Chronicle first reported the declaration on Thursday afternoon, minutes before Mayor London Breed shared a Medium post announcing that it goes into effect on Aug. 1.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will meet next week to decide whether or not to adopt the declaration, according to Breed.
"We need to be prepared and this declaration will allow us to serve the city better," Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco Director of Health, said in a press release on Thursday. "Our COVID-19 response has taught us that it is imperative that we mobilize city resources. The declaration helps us ensure we have all the tools available to augment our outreach, testing and treatment, especially to the LGBTQ+ who remain at highest risk for monkeypox."
Officials on Thursday reported 281 cases in the city, up from 80 two weeks ago. The California Department of Public Health published data on Thursday, which included a delay, listing Los Angeles County as the only jurisdiction with more cases.
Within San Francisco and across the country, public health officials have said cases are primarily concentrated among men who have sex with men. The virus has thus had a disproportionate effect among LGBTQ residents, as vaccine supplies have also been limited.
"Many people in our LGBTQ community are scared and frustrated. This local emergency will allow us to continue to support our most at-risk, while also better preparing for what's to come," Breed said in a statement.
San Francisco asked federal officials for 35,000 monkeypox doses. After receiving more than 4,000 additional doses, the city will have received a little more than one-third of the doses that officials requested.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, on Wednesday called on state and local officials to declare a state of emergency. He said in a statement on Thursday that he was "grateful" for the city's leadership amid the outbreak.
"San Francisco was at the forefront of the public health responses to HIV and COVID-19, and we will be at the forefront when it comes to monkeypox," Wiener said. "We can't and won’t leave the LGTBQ community out to dry."
Monkeypox is transmitted through extended skin-to-skin contact, such as kissing, sex, close-range breathing and shared bedding or clothing. Public health officials have stressed that anyone, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, can contract monkeypox.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UCSF Professor of Medicine and infectious disease expert, said it's "dangerous" to consider monkeypox a sexually transmitted infection, worrying about a potential stigma because of the virus' current links to "one vulnerable and marginalized population."
"It is a possible way of getting it, because it's been detected in bodily fluids, but it's not the primary way in this particular outbreak," Chin-Hong said on Thursday afternoon's episode of "Bay Current" during an interview with KCBS Radio's Matt Pitman.
"Think of giardia, for example. You can get giardia from drinking contaminated water ... and you can also, at the same time, get giardia from sexual exposure, but it's not the primary way of getting it," he said. "So to say, 'You should wear condoms to prevent giardia' would be the same way of saying, 'You can wear condoms to prevent monkeypox.' "
Only New York currently has more cases than California, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When asked to comment on San Francisco's emergency declaration, a spokesperson with Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said the state "is taking this outbreak very seriously and the state will continue to work with local health departments and community advocates" to provide care, tests and information "to everyone who needs it."
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