Monkeypox?

[MonkeypoxThread]

Apologies if there is already a thread about this - the search function is useless atm! I will get this deleted if it's a duplication.

Just interested to read MNers views on this as I don't know what to make of the news reports, and I know there are very knowledgable MNers. I think it's hard for people with no knowledge of things like this, to gauge the "significance" of these cases from the news.

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being "meh, whatever, fuck it" and 10 being "PANIC MODE ENABLED" I'm normally about a 3. Is that about right?

The hysterical scaremongering over this is ridiculous.

How long will it be I wonder before the hystericals start calling for another lockdown.

The vast majority of this virus thus far has been found in gay men. As I’m not one I don’t have anything to worry about.

There are far more illnesses that are more prevalent but we’re not panicking about those.

We’ve had 20 cases thus far. 1 child is seriously ill. Out of a population of 60 million people. Get a bloody grip ffs.

Exactly. 3% fatality rate (and it could actually go up to 10% according to what I've read) is absolutely huge....the fact it affects children is terrifying. I'd be having an absolute shit fit if my child had an illness with those kinds of odds.

This will be Boris’ new catchphrase to announce at the briefings 😏

Remember that the ‘fatality’ rate includes countries which have poor health infrastructure, poor sanitation, and other risks associated with increased severity of all illnesses. It’s not a risk that falls equally on each country or demographic.

1 case in intensive care out of a total of 20 cases isn't fantastic odds, tbh.

The number of cases is irrelevant really, it's the speed of doubling that will matter. I think it's too early for strong conclusions to be drawn, but to accuse people of "hysterical scaremongering" is unfair. People are, quite reasonably, responding to widespread news reports, in which it is clear that the progression of this outbreak is not typical for monkeypox, and that the disease itself is extremely unpleasant. It would be odd if people weren't beginning to express a little concern.

Yes that the way to have a healthy debate, gaslight, homophobia, misogyny, and that great word used to try and silence any debate 'scaremongering'

If covid has taught us anything then it is anything is possible. There is nothing wrong with people discussing what is going on.

How dare you make such logical statements. How are people supposed to panic if they think about the real facts rather than just grabbing the buzz words from the pages and pages of information that is out there…

;)

The really terrifying thing is let's say hypothetically this becomes a serious public health crisis. People are going to be so reluctant to live with any restrictions again.

They know it's the milder west African variant but they don't yet know whether it has mutated because they're still sequencing genomes from the current outbreak. It's a DNA virus which are generally much slower to mutate than RNA viruses like covid and flu, but it's not impossible.

Interesting Q & A

3% death rate is hardly terrifying, in my opinion.
Your child would have to catch the virus in the first place, before facing this.

I think this is a real concern. Covid may not have been the pandemic we have been waiting for, that is not to deny the suffering it has caused. Scientists expected an influenza pandemic there is nothing to say that this won't happen.

It will be interesting to see who gets vaccinated this time given that it causes pustules on the face and it leaves significant scarring.
You can 100% guarantee people won't isolate for 3 weeks. They didn't do it for 10 days!

The 'best' thing about monkey pox is that it is visible and you also feel like shit with it so hopefully people won't want to go out

That said we we looking at making quarantine area for monkey pox patients because if in icu they can't be with other patients

The Smallpox vaccine is a live vaccine and had quite a few bad side effects. I am not sure given these what % of the population in the 1950's and 60's had it:

'smallpox vaccine is less safe than other vaccines routinely used today. The vaccine is associated with known adverse effects that range from mild to severe. Mild vaccine reactions include formation of satellite lesions, fever, muscle aches, regional lymphadenopathy, fatigue, headache, nausea, rashes, and soreness at the vaccination site. A recent clinical trial reported that more than one-third of vaccine recipients missed days of work or school because of these mild vaccine-related symptoms.

In the 1960s, serious adverse events associated with smallpox vaccination in the United States included death (1/million vaccinations), progressive vaccinia (1.5/million vaccinations), eczema vaccinatum (39/million vaccinations), postvaccinial encephalitis (12/million vaccinations), and generalized vaccinia (241/million vaccinations). Adverse events were approximately ten times more common among those vaccinated for the first time compared to revaccinees. Fatality rates were also four times higher for primary vaccinees compared to revaccinees.

Inadvertent inoculation is the most common adverse event associated with smallpox vaccination. It occurred at a rate of 529 per million vaccinations in a 1968 study. Inadvertent or accidental inoculation usually occurs when a person transfers the vaccinia virus from the vaccination site to another location on their body, usually the eyes, mouth, nose, or genitalia. Most lesions resolve without therapy, but vaccinia immune globulin (VIG) may be useful for difficult lesions. VIG can be considered for use in patients with severe ocular vaccinia, but it may increase the risk of corneal scarring'

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1069029/#:~:text=In%20the%201960s%2C%20serious%20adverse,%2C%20and%20generalized%20vaccinia%20(241%2F

You're joking right?

3% is huge...in my child's school, there's 700 kids...if they all caught it, 21 would die. How many children in your child's school have died of covid?

I thought the whole point is that its spread isn't necessarily just through sex (and activities that may be more prevalent in the gay male demographic) though? That's why the 'panic'. And 21 days of self-isolation if it were to start spreading widely would be undoable for a lot of people if they chose to obey such rules to start with.

Ugh I completely agree. So much scaremongering. The need for mass vaccines for covid is most likely behind us, so now we need to find a need for more vaccines.

There is a lot of scaremongering and media manipulation with this. 😑

It’s not homophobic to point out that thus far the vast majority of cases have been in gay men, it’s a fact.
I have no idea why that is the case, but at the moment, it is.

Gaslighting and misogyny are common mn words and are meaningless in the context of any debate around this illness.

And there’s a vast difference between a discussion and a thread full of people spreading fear and misinformation about how the death rate is 10% or even 3%, when this is a worldwide figure and is dependent on many countries where sanitation and living conditions not to mention healthcare mean that mortality rates for all illnesses are higher.

Even in Africa the death rate for the current strain is only 1%, given that in many African countries mortality rates are high due to sanitation’ conditions the death rate here is likely to be negligible, and given we haven’t actually had any deaths yet in the current outbreak, not even in Europe as far as has been reported, starting to predict deaths on any kind of scale is scaremongering.

Well I just bloody hope they start ramping up vaccinations for those most at risk and set up some proper public health information in advance of a lot of the large scale summer events. One things for sure is if people start becoming stigmatised for getting this they aren't going to disclose having symptoms and we will be in big trouble.

I hope they set policy per health guidelines and not because of lobbying by either funders or proxy lobby groups like UsForThem. However, I won't hold my breath.

And as the parent of a young child I reserve the right to be worried.

It's spread by skin to skin contact. Touching contaminated surfaces and droplets

I wonder if it's actually possible (or would have been, pre CV) for adults to have an actual discussion about this without resorting to sneering, accusations and just generally being knobheads? I had hoped this thread wouldn't kick off until someone mentioned masks, at least! Seriously though, can't people just discuss "neutrally" without terms like "hysterical" being thrown about?

There is something happening which is an possible threat to all of us. We don't know how much of a threat it is at the moment - all I started this thread for was to find out how other people felt about it. There doesn't have to be two "sides" - why does it have to be divisive?

I do have skin in the game, I'm CEV and have a HCP in our household, so my level of risk perception may be a bit fucked...so I'm genuinely interested in other peoples opinions. I'm not interested in yet another fucking thread where people sneer at each other and mock each other as either too afraid or not afraid enough, FFS.

This is my thread and it's not in AIBU so you can play nicely or you can fuck off This thread is for polite discourse and respect for other peoples opinions. AIBU is that way, start your own thread if you want to argue. Thank you.

"No. I'm not going to shoot you down (and definitely no shitting ) but
a) monkeypox is a pox virus and an adenovirus is an adenovirus. Adenoviruses give humans colds, and more serious diseases, but not pox diseases.

b) the chimp adenovirus used in the AZ vaccine is a viral vector and has been altered so it can't replicate on its own

c) chimps aren't monkeys."
Thanks @WiseUpJanetWeiss
I was thinking of heading down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole there