SF Dore Alley street fair attendees take precautions from monkeypox amid local emergency
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A popular summer street fair returned to San Francisco's SOMA neighborhood with some changes. The Dore Alley or Up Your Alley leather fair is back for 2022 with strong precautions against monkeypox.
MORE: Everything you need to know about monkeypox origin, infection, vaccines, and treatment
"It's good to see one of the last vestiges of the whole 'kink out and about' thing still surviving," said Russ Bono from Palm Springs.
Bono never misses the annual celebration of all things fetish.
"I like to think of it as the biggest leather block party," said Executive Director Angel Adeyoha.
Adeyoha says this year, the timing of a recent citywide state of emergency over monkeypox has changed the game plan, raising concerns.
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"I don't know if you came in previous years, but you would be body to body. Clearly that's not the case now, we've made room for folks," said Adeyoha.
The scaled-down event stretched several blocks. Alcohol is not allowed. The San Francisco Department of Public Health was doing outreach about monkeypox.
"I hope we get a lot more vaccines. We need it," said Tim Giang from San Francisco.
Giang was taking precautions in the crowd.
"It sounds awful. I'm not touching anyone right now. That's why I like the space," he said.
"My precaution is I won't be doing anything in close contact with a person. I'm vaccinated for monkeypox, that's a big concern," said Frederico Palyo from San Francisco.
VIDEO: This Bay Area lab can detect monkeypox in test sample within 4 hours
Renegade Bio was doing monkeypox testing outside the Eagle Bar for a research study to help stop the quick spread of the virus.
"We're trying to understand if we can detect monkeypox earlier on an asymptomatic population," said Salu Ribeiro, Renegade Bio co-founder and CEO.
It's hard to predict if this event will be a superspreader for monkeypox but arming the community with information and resources is the first step in prevention.
"We are making sure that we can still gather and connect and give people a lot of room to assess their risk and act accordingly," said Adeyoha.
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