While COVID-19 continues to be top of mind for public health officials, dozens of monkeypox cases have been confirmed in LA so far, and they appear to be clustered among gay and bisexual men. LGBT advocates are calling for more action to address the virus and hope to avoid new stigmatization of the gay community. Monkeypox definitely doesn’t present the same risk as COVID-19, but feels scary because of how fast it appeared, says Dr. Kaiyti Duffy, the chief medical officer for the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “It’s scary because it feels like it came out of nowhere and is predominantly in a patient population that’s already had a fair share of health issues,” Duffy tells KCRW.