Sonoma County continues to see a steady increase in monkeypox cases, with at least one case identified in Sonoma Valley, and critics say the U.S. government’s slow response to effectively address the illness has exacerbated a problem that mainly affects the LGBTQ+ community.
In a commentary published in the Press Democrat, Jeffery Reynoso and Seciah Aquino, executives for Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, note that Latinos make up a disproportionately percentage of cases in some Bay Area counties. They also state that the nearly 60,000 undocumented LGBTQ+ individuals in the state can experience additional barriers to health services due to not having health insurance and fearing repercussions due to their immigration status.
“As more data of California’s monkeypox cases gets reported, Latinos, especially those in the LGBTQ+ community, are emerging as a high-risk group,” they wrote. “If we do not act swiftly to halt the spread of monkeypox among Latinos, this latest public health emergency will echo disparities we saw at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
