Adult Star Boomer Banks Shares His Monkeypox (MPVX) Experiences to the New York Times

Among the seven men interviewed by the New York Times about their monkeypox (MPVX) infection, was a familiar face from adult films: Boomer Banks, whose real name is Miguel Anda. The superstar, who has worked for every major adult male film company over the past decade,explained how he discovered "odd-looking pimple that appeared on his face on June 2, 2022."

At that time there were fewer than a dozen diagnosed MPVX cases in New York City. Still, it worried Banks. Himself HIV+, he recalled the AIDS crisis; and "as a sex worker, he said, he tries to be 'more informed and more of an advocate' when it comes to sexual health."

He recalls "freaking out" when he found a small pimple on his hand. "Mr. Anda does not have health insurance, so he called the man who used to be his doctor, Demetre Daskalakis, a former New York City health official with a long history of activism in the L.G.B.T.Q. community who now works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," the Times continued. (On Aug. 2, President Biden appointed him to help lead the national monkeypox response.)

Dr. Daskalakis "was trying to console me and assure me that everything was going to be fine," Mr. Anda said. Daskalakis had Anda contact his primary care physician, who suggested he go to an emergency room; but Anda was reluctant. Instead he went to a local clinic.

"When he arrived there," the Times reports, "he found doctors and nurses waiting for him in full protective equipment, as if he had the plague. Some seemed scared, and all were 'a little baffled,' he said. The medical staff stood in the doorway to speak to him from a distance. 'They were in hazmat suits. It just felt very sci-fi.'"

He was later told by staff members that he was the first person to be seen with the infection. Some were caring, but others looked at him, he said, "like I could kill them."

He went into quarantine and waited eight days for a diagnosis. Out of fears he might infect his dog, he found friends to care for it. "New lesions appeared on his face on his 42nd birthday, and their extreme itchiness kept him awake for two days. The lesions left his face "ravaged," he said.

Anda, who is sober having overcome an addiction to crystal meth two decades ago, said that the experiences has left him with painful memories. "Being scared, not knowing what was going on," Mr. Anda said. "All the talking to doctors, and them not knowing what to do. It made me scared for me. It made me scared for my community."