Newark To Hold Monkeypox Vaccine Clinic On Tuesday

NEWARK, NJ — A walk-in vaccine clinic for monkeypox will take place in Newark on Tuesday, Aug. 16 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 393 Central Avenue.

The City of Newark, the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH), and the North Jersey Community Research Initiative (NJCRI) are partnering to host the Aug. 16 clinic. According to a news release from the office of Mayor Ras Baraka, the NJDOH has provided a limited supply of monkeypox vaccines for the NJCRI to administer to people at “high risk of infection.”

Monkeypox, – which was discovered in 1958 – can spread person-to-person through respiratory secretions during prolonged, face-to-face contact, or during intimate physical contact, such as kissing, cuddling or sex, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But it can also be spread through:

• direct contact with the infectious rash, scabs, or body fluids
• touching items (such as clothing or linens) that previously touched the infectious rash or body fluids
• pregnant people can spread the virus to their fetus through the placenta

The disease has symptoms are similar to smallpox, but milder. Monkeypox is rarely fatal, the CDC says.

There have been 11,177 confirmed cases of the virus in the United States as of Aug. 12, according to the CDC. According to New Jersey health officials, the state has logged 335 cases of monkeypox as of Aug. 15, with 62 cases in Essex County.

Newark officials said people who need to make an appointment for another date and time to receive the vaccine can call 973-483-3444, ext. 200.

The walk-in clinic will welcome people who meet one of the following criteria:

• “Individuals who have had a known exposure within last 14 days”
• “Individuals that attended an event where known monkeypox exposure occurred”
• “Persons that have a condition that may increase their risk for severe disease if infected with the monkeypox virus, such as a condition that weakens the immune system, or a history of atopic dermatitis or eczema, should be a high priority for vaccination if they have exposure risk as listed above”

Newark officials also said that the list of eligible vaccine seekers includes people who have a history of multiple or anonymous sex partners within the past 14 days and identify as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men, as well as people who identify as transgender, gender non-conforming or non-binary.

While public health experts say the risk of monkeypox is not limited to gay or bisexual men, some of the cases reported so far have been clustered around men who have sex with men.

LGBTQ+ advocates have questioned the messaging surrounding monkeypox, particularly involving the gay community, where the virus showed up early and created a new wave of stigma for a population that has been scapegoated during similar public health scares in the past.

GLAAD – one of the world's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer media advocacy organizations – recently said that news of additional monkeypox vaccine doses becoming available is "welcome and urgently needed."

The nonprofit says that transmission of the virus is more closely connected to a person’s behavior than any community or identity. According to GLADD:

"A person's sexual orientation or gender identity does not put them at higher risk of infection; close contact to an infected person puts them at greater risk of infection. As the CDC's Dr. Demetre Daskalakis noted, [monkeypox] transmission is similar to the MRSA outbreak in 2008, with lessons we can apply for public health messaging and media coverage. With MRSA, athletes could be especially at risk because of close physical contact and shared facilities, not because they are athletes. Dr. Daskalakis reiterated that MPV transmission is more accurately linked to behavior than to a person's identity."

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