Tourists were among those who lined up to get monkeypox vaccines in Montreal on Saturday as the World Health Organization declared the virus a global health emergency.
Brian Macchi was one of several New Yorkers waiting to be vaccinated at an outdoor clinic in the city’s Gay Village.
11
Brian Macy of New York receives a monkeypox vaccine at an outdoor clinic in Montreal, Saturday, July 23, 2022. Tourists are among those lining up to receive monkeypox vaccines in Montreal as the World Health Organization declares the virus a global health emergency. THE CANADIAN PRESS / Graham Hughes
Machi, who was already in Montreal on vacation, said he was prompted to get the vaccine in Canada after unsuccessfully trying to make an appointment at home.
Story continues below the ad
“It’s like concert tickets,” he said of the New York process.
READ MORE: Monkeypox cases on the rise in Canada – has the country’s level of risk changed?
He said he went online just as appointments opened at 6 p.m., only to have to constantly refresh a frozen app and end up being told there were no appointments available.
Later, at a drag show, he hears an announcement that there are vaccines in Montreal, including for tourists.
“They mentioned it’s here and it’s the best thing because the community is reaching out and I can get it without having to deal with the US,” he said.
Another couple on vacation from New York told a similar story about trying to book a vaccine appointment at home.
“I was kicked out of the system maybe five or six times, and eventually there were no more dates, and there’s no telling when more dates are going to be released,” said Brad, 36, who did not want to give his last name.
“We were able to come here and get a vaccine and it’s an amazing, amazing service,” he said.
Story continues below the ad
READ MORE: Monkeypox outbreak in US could establish itself as new STD, experts say
Montreal offers vaccination against the disease to all men who have sex with men, as well as to people who have been exposed to monkeypox.
On Saturday, about a dozen health workers sat under pink and blue tents on Ste-Catherine Street, providing information to people who stopped by to ask about the vaccine.
Trending stories
-
Hoover Dam Explosion: A Look at What Happened So Far
-
Maskvatsis to Freedom Convoy protesters during Pope’s visit: ‘Your programs have no place’
The men were asked for their health cards or, in the case of tourists, for identification, and they sat under the tents or perched on a nearby wall to await their turn.
McGill University infectious disease specialist Michael Liebman said opening up the vaccine to tourists made “perfect sense” and was the right thing to do to stop the spread of the disease.
“The big problem is not the local spread, but the people who carry the disease from place to place,” he said in a telephone interview.
The World Health Organization announced on Saturday that monkeypox now qualifies as a global emergency, noting that it has spread to more than 70 countries.
A global emergency is the organization’s highest level of alert, but the designation does not necessarily mean the disease is particularly transmissible or deadly. Similar declarations were made for the 2016 Zika virus in Latin America and ongoing polio eradication efforts, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Story continues below the ad
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision to call monkeypox a global emergency despite a lack of consensus among experts on the UN health agency’s Emergency Committee, saying it had acted as a “break”. It was the first time the head of a UN health agency had made such a unilateral decision without expert advice.
“We have an outbreak that has spread rapidly around the world through new modes of transmission that we understand very little about,” he said. “I know this is not an easy or straightforward process and that there are different points of view.”
Although monkeypox has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades, it was not known to cause large outbreaks outside the continent or spread widely among humans until May, when authorities discovered dozens of outbreaks in Europe, North America and elsewhere.
There were 681 confirmed cases of monkeypox in five Canadian provinces as of Saturday, including 331 in Quebec, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. The number of cases has doubled since July 1, the agency said, noting that it also recorded the first diagnosis involving a woman and the first infections in the province of Saskatchewan during the same time period.
“Since the outbreak began, the Government of Canada’s top priority has been protecting the health of all Canadians,” said a statement released after the WHO statement. “The government recognizes WHO’s determination and will continue to work with the provinces and territories as it has done since the beginning of the monkeypox outbreak.”
Story continues below the ad
The Quebec government said in an email Friday that monkeypox in the province is “relatively contained,” although the numbers continue to climb.
The province said it does not keep numbers on how many of the 13,000 vaccines administered so far have gone to out-of-province tourists.
“In general, we recommend that people get vaccinated in their province or region of origin so that the vaccine has time to be effective before they visit Quebec or Montreal,” the Ministry of Health wrote.
Liebman said the WHO’s declaration of a global emergency was a “call to action” that countries needed to get a handle on.
For now, he says, the disease is mainly transmitted among a small subset of the population — men who report having intimate contact with men — making it manageable as long as health officials act quickly.
But he notes that anyone can get monkeypox, which is spread through prolonged close contact through respiratory droplets, direct contact with skin lesions or body fluids, or through contaminated clothing or bedding.
That means if it is not brought under control, it will “inevitably” spread to other groups, including households, he said.
Most of the men queuing in Montreal said they weren’t too worried about getting monkeypox or the WHO announcement.
Story continues below the ad
“To me, it’s more about prevention, but you never know,” said Mario Tuen, a resident of Drummondville, Que.
Twenty-three-year-old Isaiah Hagerman, on the other hand, said he had already considered getting vaccinated, but the WHO announcement gave him the push he needed.
“If someone had given me a brochure maybe a week ago, I probably would have passed this up,” he said.
Machi, for his part, said he felt uplifted by the warm welcome he received in Montreal, as well as the community’s efforts to protect people.
“(Monkey pox) doesn’t scare me because of that,” he said, pointing to the pink and blue tents. “New York is stressful.”
2:08 Monkeypox declared global health emergency by WHO as 2022 cases hit 16k Previous video Next video
© 2022 The Canadian Press
Add Comment