Matt Ford, an American actor and a proud openly gay man, has become the first person to publicly admit to having been infected with Monkeypox.
Matt shared that he got infected through skin-to-skin contact with a friend in L.A.
“On Friday, June 17, that quickly changed. I received a call from a friend in LA who informed me that he had tested positive for monkeypox and that I might have been exposed the weekend prior via skin-to-skin contact. Sure enough, I checked myself for spots and noticed a couple of lesions in the underwear zone,” Matt wrote an article for Buzzfeed, where he used to work.
In a video posted on Twitter, he chastised the CDC for its slow response to the virus, which has so far infected over 306 individuals in the country.
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“As of now, it seems to be primarily affecting queer men, but it can easily spread to anyone. And according to my doctor… the CDC is doing a really lackluster job of tracking how many cases there actually are due to lack of testing and just generally not being on top of it,” Matt said in a Twitter video.
Matt detailed that the lesions have spread to other parts of his body, including sensitive areas, which he described as the most painful.
“I think in total I counted more than 25 and there are also some in more sensitive areas, which also tend to be the most painful, as in, it was so painful I had to go to my doctor and get painkillers just to be able to go to sleep. Really f*cking painful,” he said.
He also said having flu-like symptoms, such as a high temperature, cough, chills, and night sweats.
“In addition to the spots, even before those, there are intense flu-like symptoms. I had a sore throat, cough, fever, [and] chills. I was sweating through my sheets at night. Just overall, really miserable, swollen left nodes. Not good,” he stated.
At the end of the video, Matt urged everyone to get the vaccine if they can.
“I’m advocating telling everyone if you can get that vaccine, go get it. In the meantime, I’m urging you to please be careful, be safe, be cautious of prolonged skin that’s getting caught with someone who might have it, not to add to any stigma whatsoever,” he concluded.
Watch the video below:
Monkeypox PSAhttps://t.co/yWfVLk8rwz pic.twitter.com/GCCPZoQ5cw
— Matt Ford (@JMatthiasFord) June 27, 2022
According to the CDC, 306 confirmed cases have been found throughout 27 states and D.C.
Health authorities from the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealed a new vaccination approach to combat the increasing Monkeypox outbreak in the United States on Tuesday night.
“HHS will provide 296,000 doses of JYNNEOS vaccine. Of that amount, 56,000 doses will be made available immediately, and an additional 240,000 doses will be made available in the coming weeks. HHS expects more than 750,000 additional JYNNEOS doses to be made available over the summer, and an additional 500,000 doses will undergo completion, inspection, and release throughout the fall, totaling 1.6 million doses available this year,” HHS said in a statement.