Opinion

You are being misled about monkeypox

Benjamin Ryan has been covering infectious disease and LGBTQ health for two decades and contributes to the New York Times, NBC News, the Guardian and Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“Anyone can get monkeypox.”

Countless public health experts have uttered statements such as this in the past two months. Members of the media and politicians have parroted the message ad nauseam without stopping to dissect what it implies or obscures.