Mpox impact on LGBTQ+ community in Coachella Valley

In this episode, we learn about Mpox (formally Monkeypox) and its disproportionate impact within the LGBTQ+ community in the Coachella Valley. Mpox was front page news in the summer of 2022 and was cause for alarm as many people started letting their guard down three years into the COVID-19 pandemic. After what many in the healthcare community viewed as a successful awareness and vaccination campaign to combat Mpox, little has been heard about the threat posed to public health...until now. Reports surfaced in early 2023 about a possible resurgence of Mpox which has left many in the LGBTQ+ community scrambling to learn more and be prepared for a rise in cases. Why was the spread of Mpox slowed so quickly and how are community experts in the under resourced Coachella Valley responding to news of a possible uptick in cases? Join Dr. Joshua Liashenko, PhD candidate Sahar Fourzan, public health practitioner Selina Hernandez as they explore all things Mpox. We will hear from Jeff Taylor, the Executive Director of the HIV services non-profit HIV and Aging Research Project-Palm Springs (HARP-PS) and Jacob Rostovsky, CEO and founder of the LGBTQ+ mental health service provider Queer Works as they share details about their work on the front lines to educate, vaccinate, and slow Mpox’s spread in the Coachella Valley.

Resources: 
https://www.harp-ps.org/

https://www.queerworks.org/

Transcript

[music] 30 sec of play 

Hello, welcome to Healthy Disruptions, a podcast about health and health inequities across our diverse communities in Southern California.

In this podcast, we speak with community members, students, researchers, and leadership to bring you the real experts on health disparities in communities across Southern California. 

Join us each month as we discuss local issues as they are happening and highlight members of our communities who are seeking better health for themselves and their communities. 

Thank you for joining us for your healthy dose of disruptions. Stay with us. 

[Short Music segment 5-10 sec] smooth fade 

Joshua: Hi everyone, I’m Joshua, a Medical Anthropologist Scholar and Postdoctoral Scholar at the UC Riverside, School of Medicine and I am here with Sahar. 

Sahar: Hi Everyone, I am a PHD candidate in Anthropology at UC Riverside and I specialize in Environmental Anthropology. 

Joshua: We are also joined by Selina. 

Selina: Hello Everyone, my name is Selina and I am the Community Relations Specialist. 

Joshua: So in this dose of health disruption we are focusing on Mpox. I had the chance to interview two community members who have been on the front lines of Mpox education and vaccination efforts in Riverside County. I spoke with Jeff Taylor from the  HIV and Aging Project in Palm Springs and Jacob Rostavski from a Mental Health non-profit- Queer Works. Both of these gentlemen work extensively with members of the LGBTQ+ community, who happen to be at a higher risk in contracting Mpox.

Before we dive in, I want to ask both you Sahar and Selina: What do you all know or remember about Mpox? 

Selina: Yeah, I know there have been a lot of myths and things going around, misinformation. 

Joshua: Yes it was! Last June in 2022, we started to see a wave of new Mpox infections. 

Selina: So what exactly happened with Mpox last year? 

Joshua: Well, last June, during last years Pride Month there was an increase in Mpox infections, that was disproportionately affecting the LGBTQ+ community and it was a public health concern just because of how the virus spreads, the communities it was impacting, and there were efforts in trying to educate and vaccinate many at risk people as possible. 

Sahar: Now what is the difference between Mpox and other viruses? 

Joshua: Yeah, I’m really glad you asked that question. So last year like I said before, this community reaction to Mpox infections was a community led initiative to spread awareness about how it’s contracted, who is the most at risk, and there was actually a really successful vaccination campaign that led to a drop in cases. There was such a dramatic drop in cases that Mpox kinda fell off of everyone’s radar for a while and this year May 11, 2023, the World Health Organization or WHO came out and said that Mpox was no longer a global health emergency. 

Selina: So not that you’re saying MPox a lot, everything is coming back to my mind. Didn’t it used to be called Monkeypox? 

Joshua: Yeah, we all started referring to it under its formal name Monkeypox, as you said. The virus was actually first identified in a group of monkeys that were in captivity for research purposes in the 1950s and then in 1970 that virus was given the monkeypox name because of its association with monkeys. However, in 2023 the World Health Organization or WHO has set a new directive that the name should just be Mpox from here on out. 

Selina: So thank you for going over that it’s now Mpox not Monkeypox. Can you explain that a bit more, like why the name changed? Why was there such a push for that? 

Joshua: Yeah so the WHO, according to their policies, likes to have diseases be named in such a way in which they are not associated with animals. Also there is a potential for any sort of  stigma that could be directed towards a particular community. The WHO wants there to be names that are based upon scientific accuracy that doesn’t have the potential towards targeting or reproducing that kind of stigma. 

Selina: Now, are there any differences between Mpox and other viruses? 

Joshua: So Mpox is a virus and is a member of the same varial family, viruses like Smallpox. But unlike Smallpox, Mpox is much milder and is rarely fatal. In fact, according to the CDC, 99% of people who get Mpox will fully recover, meaning that they will survive. However, it should be noted that those who are immunocompromised are more likely to experience severe illness and thus more likely to die. So Mpox should still be taken very seriously. Especially for the most vulnerable in our communities. As of earlier this year, over 30,000 cases were reported in the United States and there have been 23 deaths confirmed from Mpox. Many people are not fully aware of exactly what Mpox is, what its symptoms are, how it spreads, or even how it can be prevented and treated, and this leads to cases increasing.

Sahar: Mmm, so what are the signs and symptoms of Mpox? 

Joshua: Mpox itself causes rashes, pimple-like or blister-like pox to appear on the body. This can include pox on the hands, feet, chest, mouth, and even genitals. Eventually the pox will scab over and health, the scabs will fall off, that’s a sign that you are recovering. However, those who have had Mpox say that the pox is extremely itchy and extremely painful. 

Selina: Now that you bring that all up, I do remember seeing videos on TikTok about people explaining their symptoms. Can you please explain how it spreads? 

Joshua: Yeah I do, before I talk about how it spreads I do want to take a moment to tell all our listeners to always refer to current up to date CDC guidelines on their website concerning Mpox. Also, the information that we are giving here is all based upon data from the CDC as of June 2023. Any questions that our listeners have about their personal risks on contracting Mpox should be directed to their health care providers. However, for the case of this podcast we will briefly summarize that Mpox, as we know now, spreads through close skin to skin contact, which can include spreading through hugging, kissing, as well as anal, oral, or vaginal sex with an infected person. 

Sahar: Thanks Joshua! For our listeners, they can find more information and the resources from the CDC, linked on our website, in our show notes. So is Mpox considered an STI? 

Joshua: Mpox is not considered an STI because it can be transmitted just beyond sex. But since sexual activity involves close skin to skin contact, the majority of recent infections have been traced to sex. It is also important to remember that there are ongoing studies concerning whether or not Mpox spreads when a person is asymptomatic or if certain bodily fluids carry the virus beyond skin to skin contact. That information will hopefully be learned in the upcoming months and years as more studies are done. 

Selina: Wow, thanks for providing all that clarifying information. I do have a huge question for you. Who is most at risk for Mpox? So that we can all, you know, be aware of that. 

Joshua: So the current outbreak has mostly been among gay and bisexual men, other men who have sex with men, as well as transgender, and non-binary people. I do want to make an important point though, that Mpox should not be considered a “gay” or “queer” disease because it really can impact anyone, of any demographic, of any age. However, these are the current trends that we have seen in communities and infection rates. The public health community is addressing these trends. And actually, during our interview Jeff and Jacob bring up some of their thoughts as to why Mpox is impacting these communities the most. 

Sahar: So, what has been done in Inland Southern California to address the Mpox outbreak? 

Joshua: That is a really great question and I think that Jeff and Jacob in my interview are more qualified to answer that question than I am. So I think that this is a great opportunity to turn it over to them and let the community lead the conversation. 

Joshua Liashenko
Okay, today we have the pleasure of speaking with Jeff Taylor, Executive Director of the HIV and aging project. And Jacob Rostowski founder and CEO of queer works. Both Jeff and Jacob live and work in Palm Springs and have kindly agreed to share their experiences and perspectives about the impact that impact has had on LGBTQ
community health, especially here in the Coachella Valley. Before we dive into our
conversation about mpox, would you both like to introduce yourselves and your
organization? So our listeners have a little bit more background about who you are and the work that you do?

Jeff Taylor
Sure. This is Jeff Taylor, HIV and Aging Research Project-Palm Springs. And as the
name suggests, we focus on the unique needs of a long term survivor population,
which, you know, is very unique here in Palm Springs, and that we have the highest
concentration anywhere of older people living with HIV. So we do a lot of patient
education, provider education. We focus on cure research, as well. And the research we do is mostly socio behavioral research, as well as promoting clinical research that's available here in the valley. Thanks. Excellent.

Jacob Rostowski
yeah, I'm Jacob, he/him his pronouns. I am the CEO and founder of Queer Works. And
out here in the Coachella Valley, we mostly work with the trans and non binary
population. And we are really big on health advocacy and equity around mental health, especially. So we do like free mental health services, homeless outreach, and we're getting into HIV testing soon as well.

Joshua Liashenko
Excellent. Thank you so much for providing us a little bit more information about your
organization's and the work that you do. I want to start our conversation with getting a general sense about your initial reactions to the wave of mpox infections last year, what were your thoughts and information was rolling in about infection rates, especially among the LGBTQ+ community across the country? And how did you respond here in Palm Springs?

Jeff Taylor
Sure, I'll go first. This is Jeff. Um, I mean, for me, and I think for a lot of people in the
LGBT community, especially the long term HIV survivors who lived through HIV, it was deja vu all over again, are there there's reports of this, you know, sexually transmitted disease being transmitted through the gay community, and there wasn't a lot being done about it. It was out there, people were talking about it. But there wasn't really a mobilization of efforts to do anything. There was some confusion on whether it was sexually transmitted. But obviously, whether it's, you know, skin to skin contact or actual sex, it doesn't really matter with spreading and spreading in the LGBT community, and not enough was done at the beginning. I think one thing we found especially frustrating is that when they did start to mobilize places, similar to Palm Springs on the West Coast, like province, town and Fire Island, that have, you know, big weekend events, like we do have a lot of gay tourism, really mobilized and got people vaccinated early on. And we made specific requests directly to the CDC that went unheeded, we'd show up on calls, we've tried to reach out to them directly, they were not responding. So it was really kind of like the HIV pandemic all over again, it was a really botched response, to be perfectly blunt. And they didn't do enough, quick enough and a lot of suffering could have been avoided if they had.

Joshua Liashenko
Thank you. Yeah. And you mentioned that this is hitting the LGBTQ community,
specifically, what particular members of the community in which letters of the acronym, if you will, were feeling the brunt of the neglect from institutions and feeling the brunt of infections?

Jeff Taylor
I think it was, you know, sexually active gay man MSM, you know, which uploads
transmit as well. Yeah, I mean, it's, like I said, it was just like the HIV pandemic. And you know, it, it really brought up a lot of kind of PTSD in terms of, you know, how that was mismanaged. And how the lives of you know, those people were being devalued. And there was a lot of talk locally in the local responses, like, oh, well, you know, it's not just an LGBT or MSM issue, we need to be fair and do it everywhere. And it's to the, you know, really kind of slowed the response down because they're, we're bending over backwards to try not to be stigmatized, and he kept saying it was stigmatizing. And our response to them was, you're stigmatizing us by not focusing on where the, the pandemic is hitting us. And, you know, it's political correctness aside, this is public health, and we need to focus on where it's happening to whom it's happening, and then we can think about everybody else, but if we don't, then we do everybody else do being exposed as well.

Joshua Liashenko
Jacob, what were your reactions to the beginning of the mpox, infection rates climbing and how we how are you and your organization responding?

Jacob Rostowski
It was very interesting because I'm a milleneal and so I did not live through the initial,
you know, AIDS epidemic, right? You know, I've certainly lived through prep, and I've
lived through talking about HIV as a trans gay man. But I didn't carry that PTSD, right
that Jeff mentioned, I didn't, I didn't. I never seen my communities suffer from a health perspective. So I kind of took a step back and watched how the community reacted and then tried to find where we could fill that void. And we did that by action. Right, not saying that other people did it. I think a lot of people mobilized and took action. But I think because we weren't where I wasn't carrying that trauma, I was able to remove myself, and go and fight and not have to worry about I'm trying to say, in a way that's like, I didn't have to worry about protecting my trauma. And so I was trying to be able to be there and be supportive for the community by our organizing, kind of like guerilla style vaccine events. We got, like over 500 vaccines, so we were able to vaccinate close to 200 people both times. You know, we were able to go do a lot of work, because we weren't carrying that trauma. And it was, I felt kind of guilty to be honest, because, you know, I don't know, like, I don't know, I felt I felt, it's hard to explain like, it's, I'm trying, I was trying to think about it as you were talking like how I felt about it and sort of what we did, but my initial reaction is to always create action. And I think that because I wasn't carrying that trauma, we were able to take action. And I wish that we could have provided less fear for the community because I watched all of these mostly cisgender gay men come up have trauma, like they were freaking out, like they were living through experiences that they thought that they had not dealt with, but they thought that they had come to terms with and then this was coming up again. So it was, I don't know, it's hard for me to like kind of put into words how I felt because I wasn't really quite sure how I felt because I was watching, observing, and then also trying to create action and not step on toes, and then also let the elders lead, but also realize that the younger generation needed to step up, because the older generation was having trauma and not able to fully step up. And then I was mad because my generation wasn't stepping up because they never let lived through the experience. So I don't know, I guess in a nutshell, long winded, we Queer Works took action, because so many people could not not because I didn't want to, but because they couldn't.

Joshua Liashenko
And Jeff, was that your experience in terms of your observations? I kind of want to talk a little bit about the intergenerational elements to to this topic and how there is a collective remembrance of the HIV AIDS crisis amongst some but then not among the younger groups. Based upon what what Jacob was saying, Jeff did, did you Does that resonate with what you were seeing on the ground and how you maybe were interacting with younger queer people, in terms of addressing mpox?

Jeff Taylor
Well, I think anybody who was sexually active and kind of recognized, you know, sexual health, you know, took prep and do things to protect themselves, mobilized, regardless of age, they all realized that they were at risk. And we're taking extraordinary steps and people were mobilizing and going to Los Angeles, giving false addresses, you know, organizing carpools to get there, you know, for the first and then the second shots. You know, people even went to Canada, some people just arranged a vacation to Vancouver, Vancouver pride because they were getting giving free vaccines to anyone, regardless of you know, citizenship status. I got my first vaccine and Montreal when I was there for an AIDS conference. So yeah, people were really mobilizing. There's a lot of online social media activity, there was a local activist named David Wickman, who's a sex worker who was talking about how this is especially affecting their community and their livelihood, obviously. So I think a DAP to their credit really did stand up. And they did fortunately get some access to other vaccines and were able to organize their own events. But in terms of kind of the pop up events that Jacob was talking to doing enough of them to really cover the community and advertising the well but the whole response was kind of I think, bungled in terms of things were not done until the last minute and
they say, Okay, we have a clinic tomorrow, get the word out, well, how effectively Can
you do that with you? At 24 hours notice. So there were just a lot of missteps along the way. And I think the public health officials, despite their best intentions, were kind of caught flat footed, it did not react quickly enough, and didn't feel the same impetus that we did do to really advocate with the State Department of Public Health, and the feds and the CDC, they kind of step back and say, Well wait to be told what to do. And you know, what wasn't enough. And they weren't really being, I think, proactive enough to really address that in the way I felt they should have.

Jacob Rostowski
And it's interesting, you know, because my generation is so used to social media for
everything. So I feel like this, disproportionately, and I could be wrong, please, like,
correct me that this was affecting probably people right above millennial, you know,
generation a lot greater than the millennial generation and below, right. So the way in
which all of these clinics and all of these things throughout the entire country were being advertised was via social media or via, like, campaigns online, and it was missing
generations because I don't you know, some people don't just use Facebook, right?
Like, I'm thinking of Palm Springs. You know, we joke we know the population age demo out here, but like, they aren't all on Tik Tok. They aren't all on Instagram. They barely use Facebook. But that's how these things were being promoted. And so you know, kind of to your question around the generational is the people who did take action. I think, my, in my, in my generation, we didn't think about how we're maybe not doing this correctly. Like we're missing people. And like, when I went to LA, the majority of the people in line for the vaccine were millennial and below, and I asked them all, where did you hear about this? They're like, Oh, the, you know, LA County posted it on their Twitter. And I'm like, Okay, well, where are all the other men said they were organizing here. Like, I'm imagining like they let's pick up the phone. Hey, you want to come here? Let's get right. Oh, hey, like, let's all get in the van.

Jeff Taylor
Was it quite that? Oh, no, I know, I'm kidding. We relied on email list and Facebook.

Jacob Rostowski 12:24
Right, but like not Twitter. Yeah. And so it was just interesting to see the response.
Because, you know, I'm a big person, and I love history. And so, you know, during the
AIDS epidemic, epidemic, we didn't have social media. So I think everybody was getting information. And the same way, because there was only one way to receive information. Whereas in this case, I don't know, I remember watching Tik Tok videos and people doing that, like, quick, like one minute, what is this? And I'm like, This is great. But the people who need to be seeing this are not seeing this, like they don't know, what is what they're missing.

Joshua Liashenko
Right. So by all accounts, from what you're saying, and even when I was remembering
myself thinking about the the start of the uptick in infections last year, there's a failure of policy side failure failures among institutions, governments, but then there's generally a success story. It sounds like from communities themselves. Do you think that the information campaigns that you both participated in were successful in getting people willing to be vaccinated and, and thinking about vaccination to on the heels of COVID-19 and vaccination efforts? What do you think worked better? Why was there such a positive response to the call to be vaccinated? For mpox that maybe wasn't potentially there on a widespread sense with COVID?

Jeff Taylor
Well, I think in the LGBT community, and especially the HIV affected community, people believe in science, they're alive today because of science. Right? They wouldn't have survived the last 40 years that they weren't. So you know, even during COVID, as you mentioned, you know, we're asking doctors, HIV providers about the uptake of COVID vaccination, they said, 100% they are calling us wanting to know when their turn is up, or when they can get their vaccine. So that was not a problem. That willingness was there. You know, people believe in science. They're well educated, well informed. And it was just, you know, getting access to it. And again, the flatfooted you know, public health response to get in and out there. So people knew and once it was available, they were showing up in droves. But the, we mentioned earlier the communication was was not good enough because it was so last minute.

Jacob Rostowski
I'm gonna like take a route that like some people listening in might get mad at but
please do okay. So my feeling is, you know, not to say that like us as LGBTQ people are
only thinking about sex and sexual activity, but we are a community that is openly
engaging in conversations around sexual health. And sexual health is not a taboo,
there's a word everybody the word, the word is contributing as well. Sexual Health is not a taboo conversation in our communities. And this let's be real was affecting people's
ability to engage in sexual activity. And because we were openly talking about that, we were also openly talking about treatment, and openly talking about how we engage in sex safer again. So I feel like, because we are more open to having conversation, kind of like us, you know, Jeff said about, we believe in science, because we were open to having these conversations around sexual health, we were open to getting treatment faster, right, and like, let's be real, we wanted to keep engaging in sex. There's nothing wrong with that, like, sex positive all the way. But our motivations, whether you feel like
it's right or wrong, I feel like it doesn't, it's a moot point, it doesn't matter. But our
motivations motivated us to get vaccinated quicker. And, you know, let's if, if COVID was in affecting cisgender, heteronormative men having sex, you bet that people would have gotten vaccinated faster as well, too. So that's kind of my belief is like, because we are open about talking about these things, we were open about talking about these things.

Jeff Taylor
Well, and the messaging early on for both public health officials and from our
community, you know, to to the broader community was, you know, until there's a
vaccine, this is what you need to do to protect yourself, you need to limit the number of partners think about, you know, not having and having sex for a while. And again, you know, I was mentioning earlier that PTSD that really triggered the PTSD for the long term survivors, because that's exactly what they were left with. It was nothing else it was all about, you should stop having sex. That was the public health message. And it really, you know, harken back to the earlier really virulent anti LGBT, especially MSM, rhetoric of the 70s and early 80s. And this was the end of the Reagan era. So there was all that baggage, as well. So it was a really unwelcome reminder of what that was. And as I said, kind of evaluate of the quality of life of MSM.

Joshua Liashenko
Thank you. What has been your reaction to recent reports of an increase the mpox
infections in cities like Chicago? You know, by all accounts, there was a successful
rollout of vaccination, and the cases plummeted quite quickly, almost Astonishingly, so. But now, about a year later, or so we're seeing an increase in cases. What do you think that means? And what's your outlook from here on out?

Jacob Rostowski
You know, it's interesting, we were just talking about this before we started recording, I wasn't aware. And so that gives you a little bit of an idea of how it's not being talked about. Because my world is not primarily in, you know, this type of work, right. I'm mostly in mental health. So I feel like mental health sometimes we're the last to know, like, what I know, like the irony, right? Like, we're the last to know when something's happening. So I guess like, that kind of goes to show you that my reaction is like, Why? Why didn't I know this? And like, why aren't more people knowing about this and pride season is coming, which is scary. So I guess I'm just like, oh, gosh, like I'm a little scared. But now my brain is like, Okay, how do we get this word out?

Joshua Liashenko
And for our listeners, oh, why is pride season potentially scary in terms of health
concerns?

Jacob Rostowski
tell exactly what I just mentioned. Were an openly sex positive community and also not just sex, okay, I'm sorry, like anyone's listening. It's like, LGBTQ, we're not just about sex, but like, prides get very crowded, and people wear little to nothing because it's hot. And just hanging out and being against and like dancing and stuff. Like that's scary, too. So you know, but um, you know, I'll hand it over to Jeff but pride seasons crowded, just taking of all the bodies touching. Yeah,

Jeff Taylor
you know, I think it's to their credit, the public health people are realizing that June was pride season this was announced, you know, the month before your palm springs pride is because it's too hot this summer in the in the drag queens would melt. We have to do it in the fall. But so we had a little bit of time, but we also had the white party that came up and that was a week ago. And that's a huge you know, event 10s of 1000s of people. There is a lot of sex that happens then and they recognize that so to their credit, they partnered with DAP and did an event for the first time ever With the organizers to the white party at the venue to set up a vaccination station. So we tried to help get the word out, you know, clarify that it was open to the entire community,  you didn't have to be a white party Passholder to get that it was, you know, in and outside areas, so anyone could go to the host hotel and get it. So I think that was a good response. But again, you know, getting the word out, you know, finding out what was happening was until the last
minute, it just kind of repeated what was happening again. It's it's kind of the frustration is, we've been through these public health crises over and over again, HIV COVID and monkey pox, one right after the other. And I don't think our public health response is getting more nimble and more effective. Despite all the practice we're getting right.

Jacob Rostowski
So well, you know, what's funny, too, is because I didn't go I didn't go to the white party, just because that's like, being outside for a long time. And I don't outside, but you know, I will, you know, I always pay attention to, you know, what, vendors and what's going on, just because I love to community collaborate, and I noticed that they were doing mpox vaccines, and my nativity naivete was like, why it's over. So now, I'm, I'm sitting here, kind of to the prior question of like, what's my feeling on Chicago? I'm like, oh, it's not. And I wish that that was being communicated more, instead of just saying, Come get your vaccine, it's, Hey, you guys, you know, Hey, everybody, this is happening, let's get your vaccine or like talking about boost or something. So I learned something today, and I hope people listening are learning to like, this is not done.

Jeff Taylor
And I think one thing that's different this time around last time, because it was such an acute shortage of vaccine, again, governmental mismanagement, but that the by they, they had to start doing the called the intradermal shots where it's right over the skin. So they could, you know, get five shots out of each vial, which was, you know, a kind of a brilliant public health pivot to to address the situation. But the downside of that was a lot of people had very visible and sometimes, you know, itchy and sometimes, even painful responses to that, as opposed to the, the shot that went, you know, deeper into the skin. So a lot of people who got that, you know, didn't like it, they had this spot for months, it was so itchy, they couldn't sleep at night, and they opted not to get the second shot. So there are a lot of people walking around out there that are only partially covered. And I think the important thing to know about the Chicago cases is that a fair number of them had been gotten both both vaccinations, and still came down with very mild cases, but still, so it's out there. And you know, unlike a lot of things, the vaccinations are not 100% coverage. So you know, we need to be throwing everything out and getting people vaccinated because it reduces just like COVID reduces, but that eliminates the risk. And then let people know, you know, this is how you protect yourself in terms of, you know, navigating safer sex in the, in the context of another, another infection out there.

Jacob Rostowski
Well, and I love that point about like the double shot, because anyone who knows me
knows I'm a needlephobe. And I actually like passed out at my first month of blocks,
because I watched and then I got sick. And that's the thing about the intradermal like
grosses me out. I literally fainted and got a concussion, it was a whole thing. But because like I'm terrified, and that prevented me from going back for a really long time, because I was so scared. And as you know, a mental health professional, when you have I know that when people have adverse experiences and healthcare and prevents them from going to any type of health care. So if like, now, I think we're doing the arm again. Right.

Jeff Taylor
So have you had the option? Yeah. Good to know.

Jacob Rostowski
Yeah, that's good. Like, in my head. I'm like, okay, great. Like, that helps a lot of people who are afraid to go get their vaccines, because they're like me, you know, but I think monkey pox is a lot worse than fainting and getting a concussion. But you know, it's good to know, like, we're back to like, it's also a hassle, like, Who wants to go twice? Right? Yeah, take time off work all that. So that's good to know.

Joshua Liashenko
As our time comes close to end, what would be one thing that each of you would want
to communicate to the broader public about health about well being, as health
professionals or as people who work in healthcare capacity and, and are embedded
within the community out here in the Coachella Valley? To what is the most pressing
thing that you want? The community to know?

Jeff Taylor
I would say it's kind of everybody has, has to protect themselves. We can't rely on the
public health response to do what it needs to do in a timely basis. And this has been
proven time and time again. especially when it comes to LGBTQ health crises like this.
So, you know, be vigilant, be in touch with the organizations or bodies in your
community that communicate this kind of information. So you're aware. So like, you
know, Jacob said, if there's another outbreak, you know about it, and, you know, can
can start taking precautions. And and I think it's really incumbent upon those of us
working in the community to do a better job of getting the word out, you know, Jacob
was talking about the two vaccinations, I don't think we really emphasized the two kinds you could get, we really emphasize that in a public health messaging, and we should have.

Joshua Liashenko 25:32
Yeah, I wasn't even aware until Yeah, just a second ago.

Jeff Taylor
So yeah, and there's a lot of work to be done. And, of course, our public health system is broken. And, you know, I don't want to dump too much on the public health officials, because they were just worn down to nothing by, you know, three years, or going on to three years of COVID. And, you know, they've had budget cuts. Now, the politicization, they had their directors were fired and replaced, and you have new people trying to get up to speed. So you know, they're dancing as fast as they can. And as a result, it's like we as citizens really have to be vigilant and take up the responsibility of protecting ourselves in our communities.

Jacob Rostowski
Yeah, I agree. And, you know, I think that people feel that if they're one person, they
can't make a difference. And I know, we see that a lot like one person can. But I think
we get confused about what a difference is, like, oh, I have to go and organize an entire thing and get all these people that and that's great. Like, if you can do that, more power to you. But kind of what Jeff said, like you have to, you have to advocate for yourself. And one person can drive five people right to LA for a shot, you know, one person can say, hey, you know, oh, plus, that was my husband by one. But let's see if one person can, you know, print out a flyer and post it in a Starbucks instead of relying on social media, right? So you can make a huge difference, without having to create a huge response. And I don't want people to be, you know, dissuade by trying to make a difference, because they don't think what they're doing is big enough? And is it it's justtalking about it can make a huge difference. So, you know, try, like, try it,  you know, do some do something? If it's okay, fine. You want to retweet great, but make sure you also show that tweet to like your friend who still has a flip phone, you know, they're there.

Jeff Taylor
AOL email addresses and mail.

Joshua Liashenko
And finally, do either of you have any shoutouts, or things you'd like to promote from
your organization's or work that you're doing? Or even information about resources? If people are listening to this and realizing, oh, I should go get myself vaccinated? Where can we find those resources?

Jeff Taylor
Sure. Well, I'd be harp, you know, at the beginning of this crisis, and again, before that,
with COVID, you know, we're a really small grassroots, mostly volunteer organization. So we were able to very quickly mobilize and we, we have monthly provider meetings for HIV providers, we pivoted started doing those online, and did it all about COVID. And we were meeting every week, because there was so much that people needed to know about how to access vaccinations and diagnosis and treatment and all this stuff. And we did the same thing with with mpox. I think it was really helpful. So that's something that you know, we as a small community based organization, we're hoping to do just to get everybody together and talking about and find out what was going on and try to get the word out. So and we on our website, harp-ps.org, you know, tweet all these things. And you know, when we go to a tweet, I don't know, why social media does this. I'm not the one who does it, right. I'm one of those Luddites. Jacobs talking about, but it's out there, you know, we make it a point to to get that information out there. So we're one resource and there are others in the community as well. So let's search those out. Because as Jacob said, you know, you never know when there's going to be another outbreak. And if you're not really attuned to it, you're not going to know.

Jacob Rostowski
Yeah, I think, you know, your org is amazing. And I've learned so much from those
meetings that we're having during the outbreak. So I really appreciate that. And, you
know, we we do a lot of health equity stuff at Queerworks. So, you know, if you're more around policy and implementation and want to learn how to, I teach a class called activism as a coping mechanism, you know, we're all about teaching individuals how to be advocates in whatever way that looks right if that means driving somebody to get a vaccine or putting on a, you know, entire symposium for the weekend, like, please reach out to me I'm happy to sort of guide you through and also connect you to mental health services. We do a lot of mental health work and have mental health program and that's queerworks.org. So yeah, that's kind of what we offer.

Joshua Liashenko 
Fabulous, Thank you so much Jeff and Jacob for your time today. I’ve enjoyed our
conversation and learning from each of you and I hope that our listeners learned
something too. Thank you.

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Thank you for listening to Healthy Disruptions. Thanks BelzarMusic for the intro and outro music. 

This podcast was produced by the Community Engagement and Dissemination Core of the Center for Health Disparities Research at the University of California, Riverside in collaboration with the Center for Healthy Communities at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine.

Content was developed by our team Moises and Stephanie [SH1] in partnership with HDR@UCR and CHC.

For more information and the show notes for this episode, you can also visit our website at healthydisruptions.buzzsprout.com 

We’ll see you next time for some more Healthy Disruptions.” 

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