CDC Issues New Interesting Sex Advice For Monkeypox, Here’s The Reaction

What does that 1986 Jermaine Stewart song, “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off” have in common with new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)? Well, the CDC’s new document entitled “Social Gatherings, Safer Sex and Monkeypox” includes one piece of sexy time wardrobe advice under it’s “How can a person lower their risk during sex” section. And that’s “Consider having sex with your clothes on or covering areas where rash or sores are present, reducing as much skin-to-skin contact as possible.” This wasn’t the only “interesting” and potentially confusing pieces of advice on the document.

Now, you may be thinking, “sex with clothes on? Why didn’t I think of that?” Others thought otherwise. For example, Luke Andrews writing for the Daily Mail Online called this CDC guide “bizarre” as this tweet showed:

And here’s what Eric Feigl-Ding, PhD, an epidemiologist and Chief of the COVID Risk Task Force at the New England Complex Systems Institute, tweeted:

Others on on social media wondered about the logistics of such sex. Naturally, there are reasons why you probably aren’t seeing many people getting it on while wearing parkas, tuxedos, or full-on athleisure wear. One is that clothes can make your genitals kind of like toilet paper early in 2020, hard to reach. Another is the possibility that you and your partner may ask each other afterwards, “hey, did we actually just have sex?”

Bear in mind, though, that in this new document the CDC is not saying that everyone should consider having sex while wearing clothes during this monkeypox outbreak. Rather, they are specifically referring to “If you or your partner have (or think you might have) monkeypox and you decide to have sex.” According to the CDC, the wearing clothes thing would be a way “to reduce the chance of spreading the virus.” That may be true and all, but umm should you and your partner really be having sex if either you have (or thing you might have) monkeypox?

The concern is that this advice in some minds might suggest that having sex may be A-OK, peachy keen if one of you is infected as long as long both of you (or all parties involved) are wearing clothes. This overlooks two possibilities. One is that contact with lesions on the genital or anal regions can transmit the virus. And even though you may be wearing enough layers of clothes to look like the Michelin Man, as long as those lesions are exposed, transmission could occur. The second possibility is that an infected person may cough, sneeze, or otherwise spew out virus-carrying large respiratory droplets from his or her mouth or nose as well. Thus, wearing clothes would still leave you and your partner’s noses and mouths exposed, unless you and your partner are in the habit of wearing matching Deadpool masks during sex.

Speaking of Deadpool masks, take a look at a second piece of advice from the CDC on how to reduce monkeypox transmission risk if you or your partner may have the virus. It says, “Remember to wash your hands, fetish gear, sex toys and any fabrics (bedding, towels, clothing) after having sex.” Taken by itself, this is reasonable advice. Indeed, finding dirty fetish gear on your dining table or in your refrigerator the next day especially when you have family visiting could be a little disconcerting. So, yes, you should thoroughly wash your latex Wonder Woman outfit, your leather suspenders, your harness, your bowtie, your rabbit ears, your barber shop seats, or whatever other materials or objects that you may have used during sex. While this may prompt your roommate to ask, “why are you cleaning my sports memorabilia,” it is better to be safe than sorry (and ask your roommate before using any of his or her stuff.) In fact, such hygiene and precautions should be important regardless of whether an infectious disease outbreak is occurring. It’s not as if you should say in the future, “now that the monkeypox outbreak is done, we can go back to our policy of no hand-washing, no laundry, and no cleaning, and freedom from soap oppression.”

But don’t think for a second that having enough soap and bleach on hand would make it OK to have sex while you knowingly have monkeypox. If you or your partner have any suspicion or worry that you are carrying the virus, see a health care professional immediately. Before you say something like YOLO and claim that life is too short to wait, keep in mind that a monkeypox infection doesn’t tend to be a chronic disease. Typically, you’ll only remain contagious for no longer than several weeks, which is simply a few Scaramuccis. A medical doctor can do the appropriate testing to determine whether you are infected with the virus. So, it’s not as if you have to hold off on sex forever.

The third piece of the CDC’s advice under the during-sex-when-you-think-one-of-you-might-have-monkeypox section is a master piece of advise so to speak: “Masturbate together at a distance of at least 6 feet, without touching each other and without touching any rash or sores.” This may sound a bit like those Western cowboy movies where two people walk a certain number of paces away from each other, turn, and then draw weapons. The rationale is that large respiratory droplets, which can carry the monkeypox virus, typically cannot travel more than six feet in the air. In this case, size matters with gravity pulling them down soon after they come out of a person’s nose or mouth. This is different from smaller respiratory droplets that can carry the Covid-19 coronavirus and float in the air much further distances. So far, there’s no evidence that such smaller droplets can carry enough of the monkeypox virus to infect people.

Note that “without touching each other and without touching any rash or sores” would be implied if you indeed remain six feet apart at all times, assuming that you don’t have Elastigirl arms. If you somehow enjoy touching other people’s sores, keep in mind that such contact may transmit the monkeypox virus whether the lesion is a flat rash, a bump, a fluid-filled vesicle, a pus-filled pustule, or a scab. If one of you actually has mysterious lesions, rather than masturbating at ten paces or whatever, it’s better to not even be in the same room and instead contact a health care professional.

A fourth piece of CDC advice under the “If you or your partner have (or think you might have)” section is to avoid “Avoid kissing.” This is for everyone whose first inclination whose first inclination is to kiss someone who’s just said, “I may have been exposed to the monkeypox virus.” Yes, kissing could very readily spread the virus, as it can be present in a person’s mouth and throat. Once again, whenever the monkeypox virus is suspected and the choice is between having any type of sex versus going to the doctor, always choose the latter.

The fifth piece of “If you or your partner have (or think you might have)” advice from the CDC , “Have virtual sex with no in-person contact,” is more on the mark. Anyone who may be infected with the monkeypox virus really should be under quarantine until an infection can be adequately ruled out or the person has undergone proper treatment and is verified to be no longer contagious. When you are under quarantine, having virtual sex would be the only real option if you wanted to do it with someone else. To clarify, this doesn’t mean switching to virtual in the middle of in-person sex, like putting on a pair of VR (virtual reality) goggles. This means separated-throughout-the-encounter sex.

Finally, under the “If you or your partner have (or think you might have)” advice, the CDC urges you to “Limit your number of partners to avoid opportunities for monkeypox to spread.” Umm, how about limit your partners to zero if you think you may have the monkeypox virus? It should be made clear that having sex with anyone while knowingly infected with the monkeypox virus would be a very bad idea.

The language of the CDC document may be due to the fact that those infected with the monkeypox virus may go ahead and have sex regardless of how much it is dissuaded. For example, sex workers may feel that they have little choice. Whatever the motivations for the language, the guidelines have ended up being open to misinterpretation. The CDC does emphasize that “If you or a partner has monkeypox, the best way to protect yourself and others is to not have sex of any kind (oral, anal, vaginal) and not kiss or touch each other’s bodies while you are sick, especially any rash or sores. Do not share things like towels, fetish gear, sex toys, and toothbrushes.” But it could be made clearer that if you have monkeypox yet still proceed with having sex, you are putting your partner at major risk for catching the virus.

The CDC guidance document also has a section entitled, “How can a person lower the chance of getting monkeypox at places like raves, parties, clubs, and festivals?” This section doesn’t specifically say what you should choose this weekend if you are debating between watching the movie Maverick in a theater, doing some gardening, shopping at Home Depot, or attending a sex rave. This section does re-iterate the “Avoid any rashes or sores you see on others” and the “consider minimizing skin-to-skin contact when possible” advice. Additionally, it does emphasize how events where people are fully clothed are safer than those where people are minimally clothed in case your were wondering. Therefore, whenever you go to any public event, it may be a good idea to ask whether people will be wearing clothes. Of course, this may already be clear. You probably don’t have to ask your workplace each and every day or your favorite restaurant each time you visit, “will people be wearing clothes this time?” That’s as long as you are in an industry where clothes wearing is the norm and the restaurant doesn’t have a “half-off if you don’t wear clothes” night.

Another warning from the CDC is that “Enclosed spaces, such as back rooms, saunas, or sex clubs, where there is minimal or no clothing and where intimate sexual contact occurs have a higher likelihood of spreading monkeypox.” Such spaces make it more difficult to remain six feet apart and bear the risk of surfaces and objects being contaminated with the virus.

Ultimately, when it comes to this current monkeypox outbreak, the most important two pieces of sex advice are:

1. Don’t have sex if you suspect that you may have the monkeypox virus. Instead see a real medical professional as soon as possible, one who actually understands what monkeypox is. The CDC recommends that you “Avoid sex or being intimate with anyone until you have been checked out by a healthcare provider. If you don’t have a provider or health insurance, visit a public health clinic near you.” In this case “health care professional” may be a better term than “health care provider,” since “provider” makes you think of things like getting cable TV installed rather than medical care, as I’ve described for Forbes previously.
2. Know your partner well. Knowing your partner doesn’t mean just knowing his or her name and astrological sign. Before toasting the bagel, hiding the cannoli, or doing something with the hot dog, have some real, honest conversations. Discuss each others’ sexual habits and histories, including relevant medical histories such as whether you’ve always practiced safe sex, what partners you’ve had, and whether anyone close to you has had monkeypox. Be specific. There’s a big difference if your partner’s idea of sex has been watching the movie 50 Shades of Grey on loop with far too much ice cream in hand versus having multiple random people as sex partners. Once again, if you are worried that you or your partner may be infected with the monkeypox virus, do not have sex.

All in all, while this CDC guidance does provide some useful information, the concern is potential misinterpretation. The monkeypox outbreak is not large enough to put most of the population at risk. It is by no means the same as the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, as long as you make sure that you and your partners don’t have risk factors for being infected with the monkeypox virus, you probably don’t need to take special precautions beyond what you would normally take. If you are worried about either of your having been infected by the monkeypox virus, hold off on any type of in-person sex or any type of in-person contact and instead see a real, knowledgeable, and experienced medical doctor as soon as possible. That person can then either rule out an infection and guide you on next steps.

Remember the monkeypox virus is very different from the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It’s very different from any type of chronic infection or other chronic disease. So if you think you are infected, you won’t have to hold off on sex for that long. In the words of Stewart “Why you wanna move so fast?”