Appreciate the link to the primary source. Also from that statement: >The Committee discussed key issues related to the outbreak, including: current observatio

Appreciate the link to the primary source. Also from that statement: >The Committee discussed key issues related to the outbreak, including: current observations of plateauing or potential downward trends in case numbers in some of the countries experiencing outbreak early on... >...The Committee recognized that monkeypox is endemic in parts of Africa, where it has been noted to cause disease, including fatalities, for decades... >...However, the Committee unanimously acknowledged the emergency nature of the event and that controlling the further spread of outbreak requires intense response efforts... >...The Committee considered that the occurrence of one or more of the following should prompt a re-assessment of the event: evidence of an increase in the rate of growth of cases reported in the next 21 days, both among and beyond the population groups currently affected; occurrence of cases among sex workers; evidence of significant spread to and within additional countries, or significant increases in number of cases and spread in endemic countries... My reading is that the primary reason why a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)" wasn't declared is because there's not enough evidence of growth and in fact evidence of a plateau in case numbers. Obviously I don't have access to any special information either way about whether this is a fair assessment. Worries about "stigmatization" of gay men also seems to be a factor, and I agree that it would be really weird if offending the sensibilities of gay people in Western countries was a main concern (or something like that), but reading between the lines a bit I think it's probably more about the countries in Western Africa where monkeypox has already been endemic for decades and homosexuality is punishable by law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminalization_of_homosexuality#Current_status https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminalization_of_homosexuali...