Opinion: Graphic mpox images to educate the public are deeply problematic
For the second time in three years, the WHO has declared an mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
Since news of the epidemic, the media has circulated images of patients infected with mpox. Some of these photographs show mpox on patients’ arms, legs, and hands, but others are headshots that resemble mugshots of African people with mpox covering their faces. The photos include an African patient somberly looking into a camera, a doctor’s hand pointing at vesicles on an African child’s face, and a disturbing image of a child who has his hands raised, as if being held up by the police, revealing pustules on his face, hands, and chest. I am purposely not linking to them, because these images tend to pathologize, even criminalize, the patients.
Read Original Article: Opinion: Graphic mpox images to educate the public are deeply problematic »
