'Monkeypox, where is your rage?': The racialization, sexualization, and securitization of global health
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55016/ojs/jcph.v1i2.79353Keywords:
sexual health, public health, global health, vaccine equality, racismAbstract
With the purposes of identifying the underlying challenges of global and public health governance of outbreaks, this paper explores three key themes that emerged in response to the 2022 mpox epidemic: the belated change of disease nomenclature from monkeypox to mpox; the classification of mpox as a sexually transmitted infection (STI); and the unpreparedness of health agencies to vaccinate impacted populations. The paper makes the case that, because of the global and public health tensions arising from racialized nomenclatures, sexualized classifications, biosecuritized borders, and monopolized vaccines, national and international agencies failed in providing an adequate and comprehensive response to the latest mpox pandemic, which contributed further to the pathologization of already vulnerable and stigmatized population groups.
Downloads
References
Asiedu, K. G. (2023) Africa waits for its share of mpox vaccines, a year after outbreak. LA Times. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-05-30/a-year-after-outbreak-africa-waits-for-its-share-of-mpox-vaccines (Accessed 19th Sept 2024)
Atuk, T., & Craddock, S. L. (2023) Social pathologies and urban pathogenicity: Moving towards better pandemic futures. Urban Studies, 60(9), 1668–1689. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980221079462
Aquino, Y.S.J., Cabrera, N., Salisi, J., & Yarcia, L.E. (2022) Monkeypox and the legacy of prejudice in targeted public health campaigns. BMJ Global Health 7, e010630. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-010630
Bavarian Nordic. (2014). Annual Report. https://www.bavarian-nordic.com/media/185756/2014-ar-uk.pdf
Bavarian Nordic. (2022). Bavarian Nordic to manufacture first freeze-dried doses of smallpox vaccine upon exercise of contract option by the U.S. government. https://www.bavarian-nordic.com/investor/news/news.aspx?news=6569 (Accessed 19th Sept 2024)
Caduff, C. (2020) What went wrong: Corona and the world after the full stop. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 34, 467–487. https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12599
Cheng, M., & Asadu, C. (2022) As resources go to fight European and American monkeypox outbreaks, some see inequity in African response. PBS NewsHour. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/as-resources-go-to-fight-european-and-american-monkeypox-outbreaks-some-see-inequity-in-african-response (Accessed 16th March 2024).
Craddock, S. (2007) Market incentives, human lives, and AIDS vaccines. Social Science & Medicine, 64(5), 1042–1056. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.10.006
Elbe, S. (2018) Pandemics, Pills, and Politics – Governing Global Health Security (1st edition). Johns Hopkins University Press.
García-Iglesias, J., Nagington, M., Pickersgill, M., Brady, M., Dewsnap, C., Highleyman, L., … & Webb, J. (2023) Is mpox an STI? The societal aspects and healthcare implications of a key question. Wellcome Open Research 7, 252. 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18436.2
Goldstein, J. (2022) How the U.S. let 20 million doses of monkeypox vaccine expire. The New York Times. August 1st. nytimes.com/2022/08/01/nyregion/monkeypox-vaccine-jynneos-us.html#:~:text=At%20several%20points%20federal%20officials,its%20three-year%20shelf%20life (Accessed 15th Sept 2024)
Happi, C., Adetifa, I., Mbala, P., Njouom, R., Nakoune, E., Happi, A., ... & De Oliveira, T. (2022) Urgent need for a non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing nomenclature for monkeypox virus. PLoS Biology, 20(8), e3001769. Urgent need for a non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing nomenclature for monkeypox virus. PLoS Biology, 20(8), p.e3001769. 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001769
Hazra, A., & Cherabie, J.N. (2023) Is mpox a Sexually Transmitted Infection? Why narrowing the scope of this disease may be harmful. Clinical Infectious Diseases 76, 1504–1507. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciac962
Hoppe, T. (2018) “Spanish Flu”: When infectious disease names blur origins and stigmatize those infected. American Journal of Public Health, 108, 1462–1464. 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304645
Kumar, R., Khosla, R., & McCoy, D. (2024) Decolonising global health research: Shifting power for transformative change. PLoS Global Public Health, 4(4), e0003141. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0003141
Kota, K.K., Hong, J., Zelaya, C., Riser, A.P., Rodriguez, A., Weller, D.L., … Mermin, J. (2023) Racial and ethnic disparities in mpox cases and vaccination among adult males — United States, May–December 2022. MMWR Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report ,72(15), 398–403. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7215a4.htm
Lancaster, K., & Rhodes, T. (2023) Problematising the emergence of outbreak science in the governance of global health: making time for slow dis-ease. Critical Public Health, 33 (5), 838–847. https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2023.2232523
Panaitiu, I.G. (2020) Apes and anticitizens: simianization and U.S. national identity discourse. Social Identities, 26(1), 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2019.1679621
Smith, A.K.J., Storer, D., Lancaster, K., Haire, B., Newman, C.E., Paparini, S., … Holt, M. (2024) Mpox illness narratives: Stigmatising care and recovery during and after an emergency outbreak. Qualitative Health Research. 10.1177/10497323241234482
Thornhill, J. P., Barkati, S., Walmsley, S., Rockstroh, J., Antinori, A., Harrison, L. B., ... & Orkin, C. M. (2022) Monkeypox virus infection in humans across 16 countries—April–June 2022. New England Journal of Medicine, 387(8), 679-691. 10.1056/NEJMoa2207323
Wald, P. (2008) Contagious: Cultures, carriers, and the outbreak narrative. Duke University Press.
WHO (2015) World Health Organization best practices for the naming of new human infectious diseases. https://www.who.int/publications-detail-redirect/WHO-HSE-FOS-15.1 (Accessed 16th March 2024).
WHO (2022) WHO recommends new name for monkeypox disease, 2022. https://www.who.int/news/item/28-11-2022-who-recommends-new-name-for-monkeypox-disease (Accessed 16th March 2024).
WHO (2023) Mpox (monkeypox). URL https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox (Accessed 16th March 2024)
WHO (2024) Mpox - Democratic Republic of the Congo. URL https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2024-DON522# (Accessed 12th Aug 2024).
Yinka-Ogunleye, A., Aruna, O., Dalhat, M., Ogoina, D., McCollum, A., Disu, Y., ... & Satheshkumar, P. S. (2019) Outbreak of human monkeypox in Nigeria in 2017–18: a clinical and epidemiological report. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 19(8), 872-879. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(19)30294-4/fulltext
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Tankut Atuk, Francesca Cannon
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
All articles in the Journal of Critical Public Health are published under a CC-BY-NC-ND license, or a CC-BY license if authors or their funders require this. The default CC-BY-NC-ND license means that authors and users may copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in un-adapted form only, for non-commercial purposes only, and only so long as proper credit is given (as is customary in academic work). Authors retain copyright of their work published in Journal of Critical Public Health and full publishing rights without restrictions
