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?

Personally I'm not drawing really any parallels between monkey pox and COVID other than we have a government that reacts too slowly to everything, an underfunded public health system and a dismissive population.

I'm a 3 in terms of worried, at the same point in COVID I was a 7 as it was so easy to catch, but in both cases the most worry thing for me is the majority of people say 'there's nothing to worry about' whatever is happening!

I’m currently a 1.

I believe the current outbreaks coincide with large gatherings at a couple of festivals. Although I have read that it can be ‘associated with aerosol spread & ‘contact with lesions’ but that the dominant spread seems to be via close contact.

Most cases up to now are mild.

Until I hear otherwise I will carry on being sensible with hand hygiene, just like I was pre Covid, and remain optimistic that nothing like Covid will come of this….

This is just an unfortunate consequence of globalization one of sadly many. Not the presence of the disease per say but it's ability to quickly travel the world carried in people on planes. I wish we didn't have globalization but I'm not overly concerned it mainly affects children worse I think and since they got off pretty lightly with COVID (medically) then it is just balancing up the risks faced by all of us.

I know Joe Public were willing to send the CEV to an early grave, but you'd hope they'd think differently about their DC

Doubt it.

After all, this has about the same fatality rate as the current version of omicron in a vaccinated population. Who is advocating any form of restrictions for that right now?

Monkey pox would have to be producing much worse levels of hospitalisation (risk of overwhelming the NHS), levels of sick leave that are threatening key services, or a death rate about 10x higher than it appears to have, before any form of restriction was imposed.

There is no reason from a governmental or public health planning pov to have a different approach because the membership of the more vulnerable groups is different.

I know Joe Public were willing to send the CEV to an early grave, but you'd hope they'd think differently about their DC

I always said if covid has predominantly affected children rather than elderly, the latter would not have been willing to isolate to protect children.

We were supposed to isolate to protect the NHS not the elderly
And it wasn't just elderly that were affected, many clinically extremely vulnerable were also affected many of whom have a good many years to live.

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+24%3A7&version=KJV

It's just the way it's always been though the history of mankind. There is nothing extraordinary going on now, so no need for the breathless scaremongering.

When was this not the case?

Monkey pox straight after covid would seem like a lot of pestilence in a very short period of time. Let's wait and see how bad the monkey pox situation gets.

Ukraine is a country approximately the size of France, and it is often described as the Bread Basket, so any disruption to agriculture there has the potential to create shortages of grain and a large famine. Let's wait and see what happens.

Does anyone know what time they’ll be announcing the revised case numbers? I’ve read this morning that they may announce more community spread than initially suspected.

Now that the source of many outbreaks is known, hopefully those who are at risk will get themselves checked out.

I think this depends on your news channel - we didn't know about about pestilence war and natural disasters a 100 years ago like we instantly do know. The world news is a scary, fast paced environment.

This isn't good for your mental health.

Apparently we don't.

We do. But maybe not much.

According to the NYT only 8% of recorded history includes times of global peace. So saying war is a sign of the apocalypse is definitely hedging of bets.

I’ve been hearing on the news that it affects children under 12 more, and people have been told to avoid this demographic if they have been in contact with it. To be honest, what worries me about it is the disruption it could cause to school and nursery for my kids if it takes off 🙈, nursery is bad enough with chickenpox outbreaksbetc and being at nursery and primary school all day would definitely count as ‘household contact’. Please no more school disruption!

Don't forget that there are already vaccines that work against smallpox (and hence monkeypox) as well as very good antivirals. The USA has millions of doses of smallpox vaccine in reserve. I suspect the UK also has a lot of it. I don't think we should worry.

I'm not particularly worried but getting more concerned than I was say, last week. I'm in London and it is upsetting to hear a child is in ITC with it.

The rash looks absolutely gross and I would hate to catch it. I know that is all a bit superficial but bloody hell, it is SO much worse looking than chicken pox and chicken pox is pretty grim to look at.

I'm not worried about the monkeypox as I am about racism and homophobia increasing. Yes, nhs is extremely underfunded and understaffed. I'm will do what I can to reduce the chance of me getting any illness (because like majority of humans I don't like getting ill). Media needs to be more careful.

I agree re racism and homophobia. Lots of people declaring it an STD as fact (many on this thread) and you can see the homophobic comments increasing on twitter etc.

Please no more school disruption!

Oh lord, can you imagine?!

@Comedycook i know 😳

Would people send their DC into school if monkeypox was rife in their school?