San Francisco's Department of Public Health confirmed Thursday that a second strain of monkeypox has surfaced in the city, traced to contact with someone who had traveled internationally. Health officials are now urging residents to get vaccinated.

Let's take a breath before anyone starts doom-scrolling.

If you were around for the 2022 monkeypox outbreak, you'll remember how quickly San Francisco mobilized — and how effective that response actually was. The city rolled out vaccines fast, targeted outreach worked, and cases dropped. It was, frankly, one of the better examples of local public health doing its job without spiraling into heavy-handed mandates.

So what's the play now? Pretty straightforward: if you're in a higher-risk group, go get vaccinated. The Jynneos vaccine is available, it's effective, and it doesn't require the government to shut anything down or spend billions on a new bureaucratic apparatus. This is public health at its most libertarian — give people information, give them access, and let them make smart decisions.

The key detail here is the international travel connection. This isn't evidence of widespread community transmission — it's a single case linked to a known exposure. That matters. Context matters. And health officials, to their credit, are leading with a vaccination push rather than reaching for the emergency powers playbook.

What we don't need is a repeat of the COVID-era pattern where a manageable health situation gets weaponized into justification for expanded government authority and eye-watering spending. SF has the infrastructure and the institutional knowledge from 2022. Use it. Keep the response proportional.

The real question going forward is whether DPH can maintain adequate vaccine supply and accessible clinic hours without blowing through its budget. We've seen this city turn a $14 billion annual budget into somehow-not-enough money more times than we can count. A targeted, efficient public health response shouldn't be hard. But this is San Francisco, so we'll be watching.

Get your shot if it makes sense for you. Stay informed. And let's not make this bigger — or more expensive — than it needs to be.