Sex pods? Long sleeves? Californians try to cut monkeypox risk while waiting for shots

Singer Kelechi Kalu of West Hollywood rehearses his music in Los Angeles on Aug. 4. “I haven’t necessarily stopped going out,” said Kalu, a queer man living in West Hollywood, “but I’d be lying if I said that monkeypox wasn’t on my mind 24/7.” For many Californians — especially gay and bisexual men — worries about the disease have transformed the ways they have fun and connect. The foundation also encouraged people to “consider skipping the dark, back rooms at parties if they’re super crowded and there’s no way to control who you’re bumping up against and rubbing skin-to-skin with.” Another guide, titled “Six Ways We Can Have Safer Sex in the Time of Monkeypox,” suggested that “it might be time to hang up the group sex and saunas until we all get shots one and two of the vaccine,” framing it as a stopgap measure until there are adequate supplies of the shots. Grant Roth, one of the investigators with RESPND-MI, said that the most obvious way to protect oneself is to limit or abstain from sex, “but as we know historically, that does not work for a lot of people.” “If you can’t get the average American to wear a mask to the grocery store, it’s a little myopic to tell gay men that they need to stay home and not have sex for an indefinite number of months” until the vaccine is rolled out, said Dr. Timothy M. Hall, a health sciences assistant clinical professor in UCLA’s Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine. “Two years later, I’m an anxious asthmatic mess and a new girl is here in town and her name is monkeypox and she’s come to get us,” Kalu said.