WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom stated that the best way to prevent the spread of monkeypox (which might as well be classified as an STD at this point) is for gay men to stop having so much gay sex.

“This is an outbreak that can be stopped if countries, communities and individuals inform themselves, take the risk seriously and take the steps needed to stop transmission and protect vulnerable groups. The best way to do that is to reduce the risk of exposure. That means making safe choices for yourself and others,” Adhanom said at a briefing.

“For men who have sex with men, this includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners, reconsidering sex with new partners and exchanging contact details with any new partners to enable follow-up, if needed.” 

Despite the rather inflammatory request, WHO director-general Adhanom says it’s important to minimize “stigma and discrimination,” which he says can be “as dangerous as any virus.”

This news comes slightly over a week after Adhanom declared monkeypox an international health emergency, overruling an expert panel committee that tried to vote down the decision to do so. Adhanom apparently knows better.

Besides requesting that gay and bisexual men stop having sex, Adhanom has also called for countries around the world to participate in a global censorship campaign to combat monkeypox “misinformation,” not unlike the one undertaken during the height of COVID hysteria and vaccine mandates.

“As we have seen with COVID-19, misinformation and disinformation can spread rapidly online. So, we call on all social media platforms, tech companies, and news organizations to work with us to prevent and counter harmful information,” Adhanom said on July 27.

So far, approximately 18,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported to the WHO on a planet of over seven billion people.