Health

Washington DC Health Department Promotes Monkeypox Vaccination For Staff Of ‘Sex Clubs’

(Photo by HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images)

Dylan Housman Deputy News Editor
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The Washington, D.C. Department of Health released guidance for who is eligible to get a monkeypox vaccination Tuesday morning, and one group included was employees of “sex clubs.”

Monkeypox vaccine doses are in short supply, leading many health authorities to recommend that only the most vulnerable to the pathogen get vaccinated for now. According to the D.C. Department of Health, that group includes “staff (of any sex) at establishments where sexual activity occurs,” including bath houses, saunas and sex clubs.

The city also recommends sex workers (of any sex) get the vaccine, in addition to gay and bisexual men who have had sex with multiple or anonymous partners in the past 14 days and transgender or nonbinary persons assigned male at birth who have sex with men.

Proof of residency in D.C. is required in order to be given a vaccination. Proof of recent sexual contact with other men is not. (RELATED: CDC Quietly Removes Mask Recommendation For Monkeypox Prevention)

The Biden administration announced its monkeypox prevention strategy last week, which included a plan to roll out the small supply of vaccines available to needy cities and states. As of last week, the federal government only possessed around 28,000 courses of Jynneos’ two-dose monkeypox vaccine, but it is expected to acquire around 300,000 more courses in the coming weeks.

A total of 1.6 million doses are expected to be available in the United States by the end of this year, the administration said. According to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 460 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the United States so far, spread across 30 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.