(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) With sexually-transmitted diseases rising in New York City, the NYC Health Department reassured residents on Friday that a lifestyle of promiscuity with random strangers was safe, so long as partners were up-to-date on their COVID screenings.
“Hooking up can be healthy and as New York City continues to reopen, residents have reconnected,” the department wrote in a statement, as reported by the Daily Caller.
“However, new data show an increase in reported sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in New York City from 2020 to 2021, likely due to reduced STI screening and testing related to the COVID-19 pandemic and decreased STI transmission in 2020,” it warned.
According to the department, the “infrastructure” used to combat COVID could be repurposed to track STIs as well, thereby lowering risk for those who engage in casual sex.
“[G]etting frisky doesn’t have to be risky,” said the statement.
According to Sarah Braunstein, assistant commissioner for the Health Department’s Bureau of Hepatitis, HIV, and Sexually Transmitted Infections, the state is obliged to make sure that New Yorkers are sexually active.
“The sexual health and well-being of New Yorkers are key priorities for the Health Department,” she said, noting that the state has engaged in extensive “sexual health programming and services”
She said is essential that New Yorkers be “sexually healthy,” which means receiving “high-quality, affirming services and proven prevention and treatment interventions.”
The health department’s statement also included numbers regarding the spiking STI rates in the city.
“From 2020 to 2021, the chlamydia rate increased 13.2% among males and 5.2% among females in New York City,” it said. “The chlamydia rate among females ages 15 to 24 years was significantly higher than that for the overall female population.”
The epidemic of STIs is particularly bad among teenagers and prepubescent children.
“In 2021, approximately one-quarter (25%) of all female chlamydia cases in New York City were among females ages 10 to 19 years,” said the statement.
As children succumb to STIs, however, the state’s health department pledged to funnel more resources into fighting “racial and ethnic inequities in the distribution of STIs in New York City.”
