Just when you thought the modern world couldn’t become more cartoonish, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation released the most bizarre advertisement for Mpox vaccinations Tuesday.
For some reason, the CDC Foundation captioned their social media post containing the borderline seizure-inducing ad with the sentence “family comes first,” even though there is not a single thing about the subject matter that has anything to do with actual families. The entire production is centered on HBO’s Dashaun Wesley who the CDC Foundation and apparently other people believe is the “King of Vogue” (that’s Madonna and I’ll die on this hill) and the fact he didn’t get his second dose of the Mpox vaccine.
Family comes first. That’s why we teamed up with the king of vogue @DashaunWesley and his ballroom family to share the facts about the #mpox vax. He got his first shot but didn’t know about the second one. Did you? #mpoxisnow
Beats by @TheOnlyMikeQ pic.twitter.com/NbijWmCZ37
— CDC Foundation (@CDCFound) April 23, 2024
Originally called “monkeypox,” Mpox is a predominantly sexually transmitted disease that has spread mostly through men who have sex with other men. (RELATED: Man’s Nose Rots After Monkeypox, Syphilis And HIV Infection)
And it seems that the CDC Foundation ad is specifically targeted to this demographic in a pretty stereotypical way. Personally, the gay men I know wouldn’t be seen dead in the pants worn by Wesley’s “chosen family” in the ad, but perhaps that’s just a personal bias.
Meet Joe Biden’s monkeypox czar: a “progressive, radical gay” doctor who performs HIV screenings in sex clubs and gives meningitis shots in drag. Now he’s in the White Househttps://t.co/sfQjvA8JQ9
— Dylan Housman (@Dylan_Housman) September 8, 2022
Despite having almost 150,000 followers, the CDC Foundation’s post received just 31 likes, even though they probably (hopefully) paid Wesley to appear in it to boost engagement. “What a weirdo,” wrote one user in the comments. “Such an odd PSA.”
The CDC lists Mpox as a “potentially serious disease” and is part of the smallpox family. Symptoms range from a rash and flu-like feeling that can last some two to four weeks. The available vaccinations for Mpox have a host of common side effects that all sound pretty similar to the flu.