While monkeypox cases have gone down in Chicago since the peak in late July, they are going up proportionately among Black and Latinx Chicagoans, according to city data.
"You can see that week over week a larger percentage of cases now are in Black Chicagoans," said Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, addressing the change in her weekly Facebook Live.
That's why Matthew "Iron Wolf" White is trying to get the message out on Chicago's South Side.
"One of my concerns was I wasn’t seeing enough people that look like me actually really advocating for the monkeypox vaccination," White said.
As a member of Onyx, a club for "Men of Color who like the leather lifestyle," White helped organize a vaccination event at Club Escape, a gay bar at 1530 E. 75th St., for this Friday night.
Doctors say this virus is mirroring the coronavirus and other viral outbreaks, highlighting racial disparities in healthcare, especially when it comes to the vaccine uptake.
While 27% of monkeypox or MPV cases have been in Black Chicagoans, only 13% of vaccine is going to that same demographic. Meanwhile, 30% of monkeypox cases have been in the Latinx community, but only 18% of the vaccine.
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"I feel like that may be the case here for Black Chicagoans because there's no representation of us that’s really advocating for it," White said.
"You have to meet the communities where they are at. We know that's the most effective means of bringing any intervention to a space that needs it," said Dr. Anu Hazra, an infectious disease specialist with Howard Brown Health.
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Dr. Hazra says community outreach like Friday night’s vaccination event at Club Escape is essential.
"If we are able to vaccinate or increase vaccine coverage in those certain zip code, we’ll hope continue to see that downward trend," said Dr. Hazra.
