The head of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene urged the World Health Organization to “immediately” act on renaming the monkeypox virus due to its “potentially devastating and stigmatizing effects.”
Commissioner Ashwin Vasan argued that prolonging the use of monkeypox as the name of the new global outbreak could reignite “traumatic feelings of racism and stigma,” especially for black people, which could result in them avoiding treatment.
WHO TO RENAME MONKEYPOX VIRUS TO AVOID RACIST STIGMA
“Unfortunately, once again, New York City (NYC) finds itself at the epicenter of a contagious disease that is affecting the fabric of our communities,” Vasan wrote in a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday. “We have a growing concern for the potentially devastating and stigmatizing effects that the messaging around the ‘monkeypox’ virus can have on these already vulnerable communities. Therefore, I write to urge you to act immediately on renaming the ‘monkeypox’ virus.”
Vasan cited the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the coronavirus pandemic as prior examples of how the “language” used in public health matters.
We’re calling on @WHO to act immediately to rename the “monkeypox” virus. We have a growing concern for the potentially stigmatizing effects that the messaging around the “monkeypox” virus can have on vulnerable communities. Read our letter: https://t.co/hC6L8o60TH pic.twitter.com/G8CQ9ueaMJ
— Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, MD, PhD (@NYCHealthCommr) July 26, 2022
“We are at a critical crossroads of the ‘monkeypox’ outbreak — before understanding and awareness of the virus is spread more widely, but also at a time of increasing transmission where we need to be broadly messaging about primary prevention and risk. The WHO must act in this moment before it is too late,” Vasan said.
The WHO said last month that it would rename the monkeypox virus to avoid racist stigma, arguing the name does not adhere to WHO guidelines that discourage using geographic regions or animals to name viruses. Despite plans to develop a new name, the WHO has yet to outline when that process will be completed, saying it will be announced as soon as possible.
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A group of 30 scientists previously penned a letter pushing the WHO to change the name, noting that the reference to the “virus being African is not only inaccurate but is also discriminatory and stigmatizing.”
As of Tuesday, 1,092 people in New York City have tested positive for orthopoxvirus/monkeypox, according to the city’s Department of Health.
