Top NYC Health Official Claims ‘Retaliation’ After Monkeypox Messaging Dispute
This article features Government Accountability Project’s whistleblower client, Dr. Don Weiss, and was originally published here.
A veteran top infectious diseases expert at the New York City Health Department says he was reassigned in “retaliation” for butting heads with higher-ups regarding the city’s monkeypox messaging.
Dr. Don Weiss, director of surveillance, was transferred to another unit after he publicly criticized the department’s advice that gay men should simply ‘avoid kissing’ and ‘cover up their sores’ – as opposed to Weiss’ advice that gay men abstain from or reduce sex for a period of time, the NY Post reports.
“Monkeypox in NYC is a sexually transmitted infection. Not communicating this clearly and often is a public health failure,” Weiss said in a July 18 letter to Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan, which he posted on his website.
“DOHMH continues to emphasize skin-to-skin contact as the major risk and have now dangerously suggested that sex is not a risk, as long as you don’t kiss and cover your sores. This is completely contrary to the evidence,” he continued.
According to Weiss, leadership within the health department “is more concerned with stigma avoidance” than “giving people the risk information they need to protect themselves and others. People are suffering.”
Four days after his post, Weiss received a letter from assistant commissioner Sean McFarlane, notifying him...
We're hearing from people who say they're still owed thousands of dollars from CJF America. And for the first time in months, WRAL talked with the founder, Courtney Jordan, directly.