What The Pox? | Monkeypox stories and resources

Monkeypox. That’s what we’re here to talk about. Quite a lot of people have got it or had it at this point. I’m one of them. And it was not fun. When I was home alone with Monkeypox in all kinds of pain, Feeling scared and alone I had very little information. So I went online to find help. And guess what - there wasn’t much official advice. But I did start talking to all kinds of people: experts, people who’ve had the virus, And to those who see this outbreak, as part of a much bigger picture.Monkeypox is spreading worldwide- and for many of us queer people, the response feels a bit too familiar…You see History rarely repeats. But it often rhymes. This podcast is basically all things a needed to hear when at the time. It’s for anyone who has or had Monkeypox - plus anyone who is queer, or cares about LGBTQIA+ people, or is just worried about this outbreak. So yeah, it’s kind of for everyone. Because although Monkeypox isn’t a 'gay and bi men’s' disease; for now it's predominantly affecting sexually active men who have sex with men. That’s because of the way it spreads, mostly through sexual contact. And well, everyone can have sex. That’s why it’s important that everyone understands how it's moving between people. Listen to understand: Why we're feeling shame and stigmaThe parallels with the HIV outbreak in the 80sThe broader queerness at playAnd I’ll let you in on a secret - we have the tools to manage this outbreak, we’ve just got to use themSo join us for this rapid response series from QueerAF and me, Martin Joseph as we try to work out - just What The Pox? is going on.Tune in every Wednesday for leading Monkeypox experts, sexual health superstars, and real people talking about Monkeypox without shame or stigma. Or head to wearequeeraf.com/whatthepox to get early access to episodes as soon as they’re ready. We Are QueerAF, and so are you. Enjoying What The Pox? Get more from QueerAF:Understand the LGBTQIA+ news (but skip the doomscrolling) with QueerAF's top-rated weekly newsletterListen to our award-winning QueerAF podcast, with inspiring LGBTQIA+ storiesInstagram - @WeAreQueerAF_Twitter - @WeAreQueerAFRead our mission

Mpox (Monkeypox). That’s what we are here to talk about. And this episode is everything I needed to hear when I first caught the virus.Quite a lot of people have got it or had it at this point. I’m one of them. In early July this year, I had monkeypox… and it was not fun. When I was alone at home, with monkeypox - in all kinds of pain. I was desperate for information.I googled "how long will this last" and searched "is it meant to feel like this?" But there was such little official advice. Classic. So I got talking to people instead.And I realized something. It’s super queer to create something because the official people haven’t. So this is it. With experts, people with experience and all done without shame and stigma.Join us to work out What The Pox is going on? This week's guests are:Matt Ford - Actor, writer and singer based in LASarah Mullindwa - TV personality and sexual health nurse, 56 Dean StreetSusan Cole - Community engagement, NAM AIDSmapMatthew Todd - Author ‘Straight Jacket', former Attitude editorListen to understand:Everything you need to know if you've just caught MonkeypoxThe key info about the virus, its symptoms and why it's spreadingA brief history of Monkeypox, that's been endemic in Africa for decadesResources:Matt Ford's (essential reading) Google Doc for if you've just caught the virusMatthew Todd's Straight Jacket, for reading about gay shame and internalized homophobiaVisit wearequeeraf.com/whatthepox to support the showEnjoying What The Pox? Get more from QueerAF:Understand the LGBTQIA+ news (but skip the doomscrolling) with QueerAF's top-rated weekly newsletterListen to our award-winning QueerAF podcast, with inspiring LGBTQIA+ storiesInstagram - @WeAreQueerAF_Twitter - @WeAreQueerAFRead our mission

Mpox (monkeypox) - about four days into isolating with it - I got some pretty intense pain. After spending 24 hours in agony - I called 111 for help.They got me an emergency appointment, and I had to cover up my legions and wear a mask. Reasonable requests. But the response I got was less so. I was greeted with what could only be described as panic.Staff used hushed tones, and a doctor in full PPE made me talk to him on the phone, through the door. After being asked if I was gay and how did I catch it - without examining me, they put me in an Ambulance. Eventually, at the A&E - they worked out that Monkeypox had caused an infection which needed antibiotics.I’ve heard similar from other people who’ve suffered. And it's of no fault of the incredible staff who were, at the end of the day, just trying to help me.Join us to hear what has the response been and why these doctors were running around trying to work out just What The Pox was going on? This week's guests are:- Marc Thompson - Co-founder of Prepster- Will Nutall - Co-founder of The Love Tank CIC- Shivani Dave - Physicist, broadcaster and producer- Sarah Mulindwa - TV personality and sexual health nurse, 56 Dean StreetListen to understand:- Why some doctors and nurses have had to scramble as they help and support patients with monkeypox- How sexual health is funded in the UK, and what that means for the service you receive- What we as the LGBTQIA+ community can do to change the way we talk about monkeypoxVisit wearequeeraf.com/whatthepox to support the show and listen ad-freeEnjoying What The Pox? Get more from QueerAF:Understand the LGBTQIA+ news (but skip the doomscrolling) with QueerAF's top-rated weekly newsletterListen to our award-winning QueerAF podcast, with inspiring LGBTQIA+ storiesInstagram - @WeAreQueerAF_Twitter - @WeAreQueerAFRead our mission

Mpox (monkeypox) - when I was super sick, in pain and feeling really under the weather - wasn't even the worst part. It was telling people. I couldn't put my finger on why, though.I knew in my rational brain that I had done nothing wrong. But I couldn't shake this feeling. For the longest time - I couldn't figure it out. And then it hit me.I grew up in the 90s, in the shadow of HIV, hearing all the awful things the newspapers and people had to say about the virus and gay sex. The shame I was feeling wasn't because I'd done that affected me, but that I'd let down others. That I'd given ammo to every homophobe about the stereotypes around LGBTQIA+ people - specifically gay men.When I started to produce this series, I was nervous. Not because I was talking about myself, or the condition or even that I would be discussing sex. But because of the shame I’d internalised from the world around me because of the stigma placed upon us.Internalized queer shame is something so many of us have picked up, and Monkeypox is just another reminder - so join us as we find out just what the pox can we do about it.This week's guests are:Matthew Todd - Author of Straight Jacket, former Attitude editorConor Macis - PHD student and Uni of Bristol teacher who shares his monkeypox journeyLiam Beattie - Trades Union campaigner, former Terrance Higgins Trust stafferMarc Thompson - Co-founder of PrepsterListen to understand:Why the shame and stigma with HIV, feels so familiar to monkeypox - and what we can do about itHow we internalise shame from the stigma put on us by the world - plus how we can combat itWhy the norms of a heterosexual world, doesn't have to be what we strive for as we carve out a queer way to live#My other QueerAF episodes:Around eating disordersOn being single, happy and coming to terms with my sex lifeVisit wearequeeraf.com/whatthepox to support the show and listen ad-freeEnjoying What The Pox? Get more from QueerAF:Understand the LGBTQIA+ news (but skip the doomscrolling) with QueerAF's top-rated weekly newsletterListen to our award-winning QueerAF podcast, with inspiring LGBTQIA+ storiesInstagram - @WeAreQueerAF_Twitter - @WeAreQueerAFRead our mission

Mpox (Monkeypox) has been troubling for many queers here in the UK and US because of the parallels to HIV. The legacy of AIDS stigma born in the 80s still lives with us today.This UK government has not released statements damning LGBTQIA+ people for monkeypox, but their silence is damning. It has had almost the same effect in drumming up homophobic rhetoric as if they had directly targeted us with this speech.But 40 years on, we have come a long way - we’ve fought for policies which could end HIV by the end of the decade. We can learn many lessons from HIV for Mpox, even though they’re very different viruses. So what are they?Join us to work out why HIV charities leading the fight to work out just what the pox is going on?This week's guests are:Matthew Hodson - Executive Director of NAM AidsmapSusan Cole - Community engagement lead, NAM AidsmapHarun Talunay - Sexual health expert with lived experience of monkeypoxListen to understand:Why this outbreak feels familiar to HIV in the 80sWhat we can learn from the response (and lack of) to HIV - for monkeypoxHow we can talk about monkeypox without stigmatising sexually active LGBTQIA+ peopleVisit wearequeeraf.com/whatthepox to support the show and listen ad-freeTake action! Write to your MP to help the monkeypox outbreak with this easy tool.Enjoying What The Pox? Get more from QueerAF:Understand the LGBTQIA+ news (but skip the doomscrolling) with QueerAF's top-rated weekly newsletterListen to our award-winning QueerAF podcast, with inspiring LGBTQIA+ storiesInstagram - @WeAreQueerAF_Twitter - @WeAreQueerAFRead our mission

Health secretary Thérèse Coffey has rejected advice from officials to procure additional doses of the mpox (monkeypox) vaccine.That's the topline from Donato Mancini's scoop for the FT this weekend. But what does it mean?Read Donato's story in the Financial TimesIt's raised great concern that it will leave the UK ill-prepared for a resurgence of the disease. This news comes as the outbreak could be curtailed, if progress continues, with new cases down to 100 a week. It also flies in the face of advice from the UK Health Security Agency and sexual health experts.Join us, in this rapid response special episode, to work out why the UK government has rejected this advice as we ask Donato and some of the show's recent contributors what the pox is going on?This week's guests are:Donato Mancini - Pharma Correspondent, Financial TimesSusan Cole - Community Engagement, NAM AIDSmapMatthew Hodson - Executive Director of NAM AIDSmapWill Nutland - Co-founder of Love Tank CIC, PrepsterListen to understand:Why this outbreak feels familiar to HIV in the 80sWhat we can learn from the response (and lack of) to HIV - for monkeypoxHow we can talk about monkeypox without stigmatising sexually active LGBTQIA+ peopleVisit wearequeeraf.com/whatthepox to support the show and listen ad-freeTake action! Write to your MP to help the monkeypox outbreak with this easy tool.

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis is like the Chris Witty of monkeypox in the US - slides and all. But can you imagine anyone 'official' in the UK talking about buttholes, fetish gear or anal while responding to a health crisis? That's what Daskalakis is doing, and he says the language he's persuaded the CDC to use is working better than anything they've used before. In official CDC guides about the virus, expect to see language like anal, oral and buttholes. Which, as NAM Aidsmap director Matthew Hodson notes earlier in the show, works because it reflects how gay and bi men talk. In the global north outbreak, monkeypox primarily affects sexually active queer, gay, bi and men who have sex with men. But numbers are now declining after a sharp spike, with nNw York named the epicenter of the global north outbreak. However, without action, it could take root and become endemic in more countries, joining those in Central and West Africa who've struggled with the disease for many years. Daskalakis is acutely aware of this. He's using his long history of sexual health work to get vaccines into arms. Indeed, this history has even seen him do HIV outreach off his own back. All of that and more this week as we work out just what the pox is going on, in America...This week's guests are:Dr. Demetre Daskalakis - White House Deputy Co-ordinator for MonkeypoxJoseph Osmundson - American biophysicist and writerListen to understand:The press headlines that painted him as a monkeypox ‘super spreader’ and satanist for being a gay man with tattoosThe frank language he’s persuaded federal departments to useWhy he’s taking vaccines to the places where those most affected are, including fetish events and bathhousesResources:CDC guidanceVisit wearequeeraf.com/whatthepox to support the show and listen ad-freeTake action! Write to your MP to help the monkeypox outbreak with this easy tool.Enjoying What The Pox? Get more from QueerAF:Understand the LGBTQIA+ news (but skip the doomscrolling) with QueerAF's top-rated weekly newsletterListen to our award-winning QueerAF podcast, with inspiring LGBTQIA+ storiesInstagram - @WeAreQueerAF_Twitter - @WeAreQueerAFRead our mission

In this bonus episode of What The Pox? host Martin Joseph shares his most recent QueerAF episode: How can you be queer, single and happy? Monkeypox stigma and shame, is inherently linked to queer and sex shame - and so the themes in this episode, ring so true. So true, they are practically an episode of the show. ]We'll be back to wrap up the season over the coming weeks with big interviews with the WHO, investigating new scientific research which could create new treatments for Monkeypox - plus we'll delve deeper into the the themes of this bonus episode - sex, and the shame our community can feel about it. Enjoying What The Pox? Get more from QueerAF:Understand the LGBTQIA+ news (but skip the doomscrolling) with QueerAF's top-rated weekly newsletterListen to our award-winning QueerAF podcast, with inspiring LGBTQIA+ storiesInstagram - @WeAreQueerAF_Twitter - @WeAreQueerAFRead our mission