‘Nobody’s acting like this is an emergency’: Act Up veteran Peter Staley condemns US monkeypox response

The government has been slow to distribute tests and vaccines and has issued confusing recommendations: it's Covid 2.0', Staley says

Peter Staley makes an unlikely member of the US public health establishment. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the Aids activist was arrested 10 times for dramatic protests against government agencies and healthcare companies that included blocking traffic, breaking into buildings, and chaining himself to the balcony of the New York Stock Exchange.

But Staley's years of criticizing the nation's decision makers on health crises, particularly as part of the legendary Aids pressure group Act Up New York, have brought him into the fold. As the co-founder of the group PrEP4All, Staley has the director of the Centers for Disease Control, Rochelle Walensky, on speed dial". He regularly emails with the National Security Council's pandemic chief, Raj Panjabi. And he has become close friends with Dr Anthony Fauci, who he says frequently turned to him for advice during the coronavirus pandemic.