Specter of monkeypox haunts Sunday's AIDS Walk in Golden Gate Park
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- The return of the AIDS Walk San Francisco on Sunday for the first time since the pandemic continued a 36-year tradition as advocates for HIV/AIDS research celebrated the progress made while acknowledging the work remaining to find a cure.
"When I started with this, people were dying. You would see them. Three weeks later they would be in the hospital, two weeks later they would be gone," said Bert Champagne, the event director of AIDS Walk San Francisco. "People are still getting infected, people are still dying so we still need to fight this fight."
Barb Howard has volunteered 34 years in a row. Not only does she work the event but she fund-raises every summer. The turnout has grown since she joined the cause in 1989.
"Give your time and efforts to causes that you care about and mean something to your heart," she advised.
HIV/AIDS researchers helped respond to COVID-19 during the pandemic and now public health leaders are reacting to a new challenge: the monkeypox virus. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation hosted a clinic on Sunday in the Castro District.
"We do not have enough vaccine in San Francisco. The only way we're going to be able to prevent the outbreak from going any further is by vaccinating as many people as possible," said Russell Roybal, chief advancement officer for SFAF.
The 500 doses given out at the clinic were issued by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. All of those shots were given to people on a waitlist. The agency said last week it wanted 35,000 doses to contain the outbreak but said on Friday it had secured a little more than 4,100 doses.
"There's no hesitancy around this vaccine. People want it, they're demanding it so we need the federal government to step up and deliver more vaccine to San Francisco," Roybal said.
SFAF says it is waiting for the SFDPH to say how much of the new doses it can allocate in the coming week.
"With the monkeypox virus, they say that's going to spread really quick so I'm really worried about that," Champagne said. "If we take care of each other and head it off at the path, we should be good."
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