The Age of Monkeypox
2023 is going to be a bit dystopian
Hey Guys,
I’m a bit confused, so you are telling me we now have two pandemics, or two global healthcare emergencies I mean? On top of war, inflation, recession and a housing affordability and healthcare accessibility crisis to deal with?
This is no longer an African or male homosexuality community problem!
On Saturday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the spread of the virus to be a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), the organization’s highest level of alert.
This strikes as weird since the WHO was very slow to even declare Covid-19 a pandemic. Who is paying Tedros to do this and for what reason?
What is John saying about Monkeypox (Video).
The stigma around monkeypox being a “homosexual” disease is also very unfortunate and means people who are not members of that community, may not take it seriously at all.
Among some healthcare policy makers, there are grave concerns that the U.S. and other countries are not doing enough to contain monkeypox from becoming a large scale global outbreak, according to an infectious disease epidemiologists.
What does Mike Hansen have to say? (Video)
When I don’t feel like reading John and Mike are my backup plan.
Global Health Emergencies
So we are getting a bit tired of the bad news. Heat waves, forest fires, in China some citizens are still in Covid-zero policy lockdowns. Now:
The WHO declared monkeypox a global health emergency.
The rare designation means the WHO now views the outbreak as a significant enough threat to global health that a coordinated international response is needed.
The WHO last issued a global health emergency in January 2020 in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Should I be worried?
This is a unique outbreak where we know this virus, but it’s causing a very large outbreak in a number of countries around the world. In fact, if we look at case counts, United States is kind of trailing behind Spain in the number of cases.
Monkeypox has been spreading rapidly and to many countries that have not seen it before, which is a matter of great concern. However, with cases concentrated among men who have sex with men, it is possible to curtail further spread of the disease with focused efforts among at-risk population,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region.
Covid-19 and Monkeypox will be endemic and be fast mutating viruses. Think about it, the monkeypox virus circulating in the current outbreak has mutated 50 times in the past four years.
Our vaccines can’t even keep up with Covid-19’s rate of mutation and variants.
In Canada, we’ve seen around 750 cases, but it’s how fast it is spreading globally that is concerning some scientists and healthcare policy makers.
Something Doesn’t Add Up
A global outbreak of monkeypox has grown to about 17,000 (late July, 2022) cases globally and while the mortality rate is extremely low now, if it continues to mutate that may not be the case for the entire experience of it.
Every country is saying that “the situation is under control”, but if that were the case, why would the head of the WHO declare it a global healthcare emergency?
Over the weekend, the World Health Organization activated its highest alert level for the virus, labeling monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern.
The decision to term monkeypox as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) was announced by Dr Tedros, Director-General WHO
The rare designation means the WHO now views the outbreak as a significant enough threat to global health that a coordinated international response is needed to prevent the virus from potentially escalating into a pandemic.
The problem is we haven’t faired well as a species with just Covid-19, what if we had two pandemics raging out of control? What would be the economic cost, mental health impacts on civil unrest and so forth?
There’s little evidence so far that both won’t be endemic and keep mutating.
People are Tired of Vaccines
The problem is with so much Covid-19 misinformation and politics, a lot of people won’t be keen on more vaccines.
(Video on this)
A lot of folk who aren’t in the so-called “high-risk” community, just won’t be bothered to get a vaccine.
People trust their Governments, healthcare systems and Health officials (including local municipal and state level leaders less). It’s setting up for conditions that are the perfect storm.
Healthcare systems are near the breaking point already, but things will inevitable get worse. This is also political, nobody wants to rock the boat until the situation escalates. The problem is the global spread is pretty fast.
Like a Netflix Movie
Monkeypox origin
Monkeypox is not a novel disease. It was first isolated in the late 1950s from a colony of monkeys. It gets its name from a 1958 outbreak among a group of laboratory test monkeys inside a research facility in Denmark’s Copenhagen.
“Though the risk of monkeypox globally and in the Region is moderate, the potential of its further international spread is real. Also, there are still many unknowns about the virus. We need to stay alert and prepared to roll out intense response to curtail further spread of monkeypox,” Dr Khetrapal Singh said.
In 2023, we will be totally de-sensitized to the risks of global warming, pandemics and the risks of automation and A.I. taking our jobs. During this recession, people will lose their jobs like we are seeing at companies like Coinbase, Shopify and others.
It is a bit surreal.
There are only about 3,700 U.S. monkeypox cases in the U.S. thus far as of July, 2022.
I expect these numbers to increase.
Since 13 May 2022, cases of monkeypox have been reported to WHO. It’s just 80 days later and the WHO already sounded the alarm? Very suspicious.
The objective of this Disease Outbreak News is to raise awareness, inform readiness and response efforts, and provide technical guidance for immediate recommended actions.
Combined with the impacts of Long-covid, B.A. 5 and the churn of Nurses and clinicians from the healthcare industry, our other healthcare needs could suffer. The cost of healthcare could go up with inflation and staff shortages, the economic costs could be worrisome.
What do you make of it all?
Thanks for reading.