US declares monkeypox an emergency.

 

A man preparing to receive a monkeypox vaccine in New York. Reuters. 

The United States had declared monkeypox an emergency with more than 6,600 cases. Reuters. The move will free up more resources to fight the disease, which has spread like wildfire among the male homosexual community. The Biden administration has been criticized for not dealing with the outbreak sooner. monkeypox can be prevented with vaccines, more specifically the smallpox vaccine, but rollout has been slow. Unlike the Coronavirus, monkeypox only spreads through close contact or exchange of bodily fluids. The virus is only rarely fatal but it can be disfiguring as it results in lesions that can scar over. 

My Comment:

I know that I personally have almost no concern with catching monkeypox. The virus at this moment is not a threat to the vast majority of people as in order to get it you have to have close contact with someone who has the virus. Given that I have not had any contact like that I have very little to worry about. 

Unlike it's extinct cousin, monkeypox is that that dangerous of a disease. There is a more dangerous strain but that one is confined to Africa. This strain has a fatality rate of less than 1% and that was in Africa. The number of people that have died in this outbreak, globally, is in the single digits so far, and as far as I am aware all of those people were sick already. 

In short, monkeypox seems less like Smallpox or even Coronavirus and more like Hand Foot and Mouth disease, which I was unfortunate enough to get last year. I would say it's a little more dangerous than that due to the slightly higher fatality rate and the slightly more severe symptoms, but not by much. 

The danger seems to be exclusively among gay men. The outbreak began during gay sex events and continues to spread the same way. Of course, straight people can catch the disease as well but it requires close contact with the virus or contact with infected bodily fluids, which hasn't been happening outside of the gay community. 

The fact that the virus is focused on the gay community makes things hard to deal with because it has become impossible to criticize gay people due to wokeness. The virus is spreading because people are having high risk sex and to even suggest that they knock it off for awhile while we get the virus under control is largely seen as homophobic, which makes zero sense. It's not homophobic because it's trying to help gay people not catch the virus! 

The vaccine has its issues as well. Though the current smallpox vaccines that are being used to prevent monkeypox are a lot less dangerous than the original vaccines it is still somewhat dangerous. And stockpiles are limited and the rollout has not been done well. They are at least acknowledging that it's the gay community that is the primary target but it still has not been good. 

But again, this situation is not that serious. Monkeypox appears to be less severe than even the current strains of Coronavirus. People will, by and large, not die from the disease. It is a pretty disgusting disease and one that can cause some permanent damage, but not anything that is worth shutting the country down. People just need to be safe and if they are at high risk they should perhaps consider the vaccine.