Speaker 0: Florida Council. Borough Council. Asian Council of Murphy. Please add the chair. Dawkins 0963 will be referred to the Committee on Boston's COVID 19 recovery. Mr. Clerk, please read Docket 0964.
Speaker 1: Duncan Members 0964 Councilor Murphy offer the following order for a hearing to address the monkeypox virus in the city. Strategy for the breakout.
Speaker 0: Thank you. The chair recognizes counsel. Murphy. Counsel Murphy. You have the floor.
Speaker 2: Thank you, counsel. President Flynn and I would like to suspend the rules and add Counselor Baker as an original sponsor, please.
Speaker 0: Counselor Baker was added.
Speaker 2: Thank you. So since the first U.S. monkeypox case was identified in mid-May, more than 6600 probable or confirmed cases have been detected in the United States. Cases have been identified in every state so far except Montana. In Wyoming. Last Thursday, August 4th, the federal government declared a public health emergency against the monkeypox virus to bolster the response to the outbreak, which would free up money and other resources to fight the virus. As of Thursday, August 4th, Massachusetts state officials had reported 157 confirmed cases of monkeypox. Vaccination efforts nationwide have been criticized as slow and lackluster. The federal government said it had limited supply of the genius vaccine in its stockpile in Massachusetts has requested a total of 26,271 doses and so far has only been sent 16,251 of that allotment. It should be noted also that the virus is not unique to the LGBTQ community in these individuals shall not be stigmatized for it. The COVID 19 pandemic is still not over with. The new high transmission will be a five omni kron sub variant lurking. Boston must be prepared to handle two public health threats simultaneously. And as we know on the city council, we should be up to date with all the available information regarding monkeypox in order to best protect and educate our constituents. We learned many lessons dealing with COVID 19 over the past two years, so now is the time to implement what worked and also change what didn't and be a role model for other cities on how to deal with this public health threat. This is why I am ordering a hearing with the appropriate committee of the Boston City Council to address the monkeypox virus and discuss the strategy for the city, including preventative steps, availability and access to testing and vaccinations, treatments, and increasing knowledge and awareness of the virus to all of our residents. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilor Murphy, the chair recognizes Councilor Baker. Councilor Baker, you have the.
Speaker 3: Floor. Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to thank Councilor Murphy for allowing me to sign on with this. Like you all know that the best tool to have when there is an issue in public with public health and safety is is education. We were an educated body when it came to COVID. We had we had regular meetings, were up to speed on what we should be doing to protect ourselves, protect our families. No difference here. We should know what this what this virus is remains. You know, we don't want to go back to the the days of the AIDS epidemic when people were afraid to interact with with, you know, certain communities. And, you know, it was people like Lady Di that went into the hospitals and embraced people that were sick with AIDS and shook their hands and and showed them love. So it's it's almost running a parallel path, not namely what the AIDS epidemic was. But we need to, like I said, stay informed. And I appreciate Councilor Murphy for allowing us to have the hearing and become informed.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilor Baker. The chair recognizes Councilor Braid and Councilor Braeden. You have the floor.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you to Castro Murphy for raising this issue and trying to really throw light on the severity of the monkeypox virus outbreak. The initial medical and public health coverage of the monkeypox outbreak has concerned, as concerningly, framed the monkeypox as only being transmissible by, by and addressed to L.G.B.T. Communities, and particularly men who have sex with men. These perceptions of monkeypox have echoed stigmas and fears of the early HIV and AIDS epidemic as because of what he referred to. But monkeypox can be transferred to anyone through close personal contact, including touching objects or fabrics and surfaces that have been used by someone with monkeypox, as well as by rat respiratory secretions. The factual and accurate public information dissemination is essential to try and stop this outbreak and prevent transmission and ensure awareness of and access to vaccines, vaccinations and treatment. We hope that we've learned from the recent outbreak of COVID. There were many hard lessons it took. It wasn't totally novel, a virus that was spreading across the world at incredible speed. And it took us some time to to get get our act together and address the issues. And I'm hoping that in working with our public health professionals in the city, that we can have factual information and have a really robust and appropriate response to this outbreak. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Counsel. Bright and. Would anyone else like to speak on this matter? Would anyone else like to add their name? I would also like to reference. I have reached out to the city of Boston. Public Health have been on several calls with them on this on this issue. And we do have a conference call that will be scheduled soon, I guess. But certainly this this hearing is critical. We'll learn as much as we possibly can. So I want to say thank you to Councilor Murphy and Councilor Britt Baker for bringing this forward, but also to the city of Boston Public Health Commission that has been working on this. So please raise your hand if you'd like to add on Mr. Clarke, please add. Councilor Arroyo. Councilor Borg. Councilor Braden. Councilor Clara Council. Florida Council. Our Constitution. And in the chair. Docket 0964 be referred to the Committee on Public Health, Homelessness and Recovery.
Order for a hearing to address the Monkeypox virus and the City's strategy for the breakout.