SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The state of California updated its isolation guidance for people with monkeypox. Officials now say to stay isolated until the lesions have fully healed and a fresh layer of skin grows over them.
LGBTQ organizations in California say they are happy that the state is increasing its communication efforts, but more needs to be done on the state and national level to ensure all communities get what they need.
Alex Silva with the Central California LGBTQ+ Collaborative in Stanislaus County said he knows he fits into the category of high risk.
“As a Latino, as a transgender man, as someone who's LGBTQ+ and who travels a lot for work, I feel like I'm personally meet a lot of the requirements,” Silva said.
But you see, he lives in the center of the state. He said he had to fight to get the limited supply of the vaccine being allocated in more rural areas.
“It brings a bigger risk of me bringing that back here to my staff members, to the community members, to my family or loved ones,” he said.
Silva said more works needs to be done to make sure that hot spots and rural areas have access.
“We need to go to those areas where they can't access transportation, where they don't have a lot of access to health care or education or information on it," Silva said.
Jorge Salinas with Equality California agreed.
“We're hearing a lot about that people taking off a whole day of work to go and drive to these urban areas and still be turned away because there was only a short supply of vaccines available,” Salinas said.
Political Reporter Morgan Rynor asked CDPH Director Dr. Aragon to address their equity concerns.
“Thank you for that important question," he started off. "So the way the vaccines are being distributed right now is based on where the cases are being reported. Cases are reported by county of residence. So if you live in a county in the central valley, then that's where the case will be reported, and then, and that's how we're districts were distributing the vaccine.”
In a broader conversation, reporters also asked Friday about what resources are available to people who have to quarantine for weeks and potentially miss work.
“Yeah, this is this is a general challenge the state continues to look at options in general,“ Aragon said.
Now that a vile of the vaccine can be divided into five doses, does that impact how much the federal government is going to give to California?
“So what the federal government has now doing," Aragon explained. "And so this is a transition week, they they have moved from counting vials, which used to be one dose, they're now counting doses.”
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