The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has removed public information from a federal webpage guiding Americans on safe-sex practices and mpox prevention. The information was removed from a CDC page titled “Safer Sex, Social Gatherings, and Monkeypox.” Now all that the page renders is a notification reading “The page you’re looking for was not found.”
According to The Advocate via archives preserved by the Wayback Machine in May, the page offered health guidance for navigating Pride events, sex clubs, festivals, hookups, parties and intimate contact during an infectious disease outbreak. It advised readers to get necessary vaccinations, avoid sexual contact if symptomatic and to exercise precautions like washing fabrics and sex toys, and exchanging contact information with intimate partners. The page also included downloadable flyers and information sheets detailing this guidance.
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis told The Advocate that the move is undoubtedly “deliberate, ideological, and dangerously familiar.” Daskalakis says the pages were made after the federal government learned its lessons during the HIV epidemic. But he maintains that the removal is not a mistake.“They purposely took it down because it doesn’t comport with the administration’s priorities,” he said.
As Pride month begins, various experts are expressing their concern. A spokesperson for Human Rights Campaign, Jared Todd, claims this is a “dangerous moment for public health. Federal agencies are being undermined by leaders who dismiss science and silence experts, particularly when it involves LGBTQ+ people.”
