• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

T R E 4 5 O N

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

“Alexa, change the president.”

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

Petty moves from a petty man.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Open Thread: Don’t Worry — Monkeypox Is Neither Smallpox Nor Ebola

Open Thread: Don’t Worry — Monkeypox Is Neither Smallpox Nor Ebola

by Anne Laurie|  July 17, 20219:08 am| 61 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Healthcare

FacebookTweetEmail

I did not have monkeypox on my 2021 bingo card. pic.twitter.com/AnVtMa6F4S

— Mede Nix (@medenix) July 16, 2021

*Now* aren’t you glad you listened to the flight attendant, and kept your mask on?…

Rare case of monkeypox found in Texas resident who had traveled internationally.

Health officials say any threat to the general public is low — mainly because the patient and fellow airline passengers were wearing masks.https://t.co/JLTz9Erpqb

— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 16, 2021

A case of monkeypox has been confirmed in a Texas resident who had flown to Atlanta from Nigeria on July 8, with a final destination of Dallas Love Field Airport on July 9, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. It is the first case of the virus seen in the United States in nearly two decades.

The patient is hospitalized in isolation in Dallas and is in stable condition, health officials with the Dallas County Health and Human Services said…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is helping to contact the patient’s fellow passengers and assessing their potential risks.

“This is another demonstration of the importance of maintaining a strong public health infrastructure, as we are only a plane ride away from any global infectious disease,” Dr. Philip Huang, director of the Dallas County Health and Human Services, said in a press release…

Authorities have interviewed the patient and close contacts who were exposed and determined there is very little risk to the general public. People who do not have symptoms are not capable of spreading the virus to others. https://t.co/y5WLpXEJ06

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 16, 2021

… Most monkeypox outbreaks have occurred in Africa. In addition to Nigeria, outbreaks have also been reported in nine other countries in central and western Africa since 1970. Monkeypox also caused a large outbreak in people in the United States in 2003 after the virus spread from imported African rodents to pet prairie dogs, with 47 reported human cases…

Re-upping this story because monkeypox virus was just reported in Dallas, Tx. We traveled by boat to this remote African village w @CDCgov scientists as they sought to learn what animals harbor the monkeypox virus. https://t.co/UmC8Qr5YyX

— LenaSun (@bylenasun) July 16, 2021


Great, illustrated story from 2017 — well worth the click:

… The United States experienced a monkeypox outbreak in 2003. An exotic pet dealer imported 800 animals from Africa, including giant pouched rats, dormice and rope squirrels. While the animals were housed in a facility in Illinois, some of them infected prairie dogs that were later sold as pets. Forty-seven people in six Midwestern states were sickened, all of whom recovered. The youngest was a 3-year-old girl bitten on the finger by her new pet prairie dog…

Despite its name, monkeypox is probably not spread by monkeys. It was discovered in research monkeys in Denmark in 1958. Giant pouched rats, dormice and squirrels are the chief suspects, but there could be others…

"Sir, they don't seem to be bothered by the COVID Delta."

"Release the monkeypox story immediately." pic.twitter.com/EqqyIZ5Jqx

— Cory (@CoryUnlimited) July 16, 2021

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Saturday Morning Open Thread: One Small Thing to Look Forward To
Next Post: Justin, There’s No Answer »

Reader Interactions

61Comments

  1. 1.

    Cermet

    July 17, 2021 at 9:30 am

    So the people on the plane are very likely safe because …wait for it … they were wearing masks mandated by the Covid precautions! Maybe this is something that should be required from now on. Look what it can do to help prevent an outbreak of a virus. And in the future, this will occur more and more often.

  2. 2.

    germy

    July 17, 2021 at 9:31 am

    Barn 86 at Saratoga Race Course under quarantine due to positive EHV-1 Case
    a positive case of Equine Herpesvirus-1 in that barn.

    https://www.news10.com/news/barn-86-at-saratoga-race-course-under-quarantine-due-to-positive-ehv-1-case/

  3. 3.

    Ramalama

    July 17, 2021 at 9:40 am

    Rick Perlstein, author of many dead-to-rights books on American history is celebrating his book Reaganland’s anniversary. This might be of interest to some of youse who talk about books here at BalloonJuice Central:

    Paperback arrives in a month–absent the embarrassing errors that marred the hardcover (save a pesky one on p. 718). To celebrate that, and my 24 years of work on the series, Zooming into the first 24 book clubs who ask. Love to meet my dear readers!

    I’m a facebook friend of his so that’s where I saw it. I guess hitting me up to hit him up is the way to go. But I won’t bother him with the actual details of how to do that, unless someone here actually wants to zoom with him about the book. Or maybe just hit him up using twitter or an email to him directly. It’s not facebook-specific.

  4. 4.

    tom

    July 17, 2021 at 9:53 am

    People keep prairie dogs as pets??

  5. 5.

    artem1s

    July 17, 2021 at 9:59 am

    After imploring folks to self report their vaccinations for months and failing to reach an 80% compliance so we could return to work w/o masking, the U finally laid down the law yesterday and announced mandated proof of vaccination to return to campus. As I suspected, faculty had the lowest rates of self reporting and were the reason most departments couldn’t reach even 60%. Yesterday was the first time The President’s office shared that bit of info. Dumbasses always need to flaunt their social status and inability perform the simplest administrative task themselves. The U has so many policies and practices that were designed around the fact that certain employees won’t perform any task that looks like secretarial work, including recording their own vacation and sick time. Low reporting on vaccination probably had more to do with tenured faculty not being able to figure out how to navigate the HR login to upload their vaccine cards as it did vaccine hesitancy.

  6. 6.

    dr. bloor

    July 17, 2021 at 10:02 am

    Verrrry clever of the Chinese to let Monkeypox leak out of a Nigerian lab to divert our attention from the COVID leak in Wuhan.

    Prove me wrong!

  7. 7.

    RandomMonster

    July 17, 2021 at 10:05 am

    @tom: People keep prairie dogs as pets??

    Seems cruel to me to keep a significantly social creature that spends a lot of time in burrows as a pet.

  8. 8.

    Uncle Cosmo

    July 17, 2021 at 10:08 am

    I spent a couple of years working in “Prairie Dog Heaven**” and didn’t get infected even though I only wore a mask on Halloween, so there. ;^p

    ** A forest of cubicles with walls a little over 5′ high. Whenever there was a loud noise a couple dozen heads would bob up above the dividers like prairie dogs popping up from their burrows and look around for the source.

  9. 9.

    jimmiraybob

    July 17, 2021 at 10:09 am

    How long do you think it will take in Texas for state and local Republican Party officials to demand that the Monkeypox people’s hero be immediately released from unconstitutional Commie-Marxist-BLM-ANTIFA and radical-leftist-Democrat imposed hospital detention all the while under threat of being offered effective live-saving treatment?

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 17, 2021 at 10:12 am

    @jimmiraybob: That depends on wether the individual is white, black, hispanic, asian….

  11. 11.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 17, 2021 at 10:13 am

    @jimmiraybob: Heh, uh, if he’s of African descent, which appears likely from the info we have, I’d say the twelfth of never; more likely they’ll go with “ooga-booga Ebola!”

  12. 12.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    July 17, 2021 at 10:15 am

    @artem1s: LOL. That’s cruelly accurate.

  13. 13.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    July 17, 2021 at 10:20 am

    @germy:

    Cold sore horse herpes or, you know, THAT kind of horse herpes?

  14. 14.

    Brachiator

    July 17, 2021 at 10:20 am

    Monkeypox also caused a large outbreak in people in the United States in 2003

    Who knew that we would ever say something like “Remember the good old days when we had monkeypox?”

    I think I recall some David Letterman jokes about it.

  15. 15.

    Immanentize

    July 17, 2021 at 10:21 am

    @RandomMonster: But what if you yourself were a social creature who liked to spend almost all their time in a burrow?

    ETA I was thinking Ozarkhillbilly when writing this, but he would certainly object to being “social.” Except with his family? Well, at least his grandkids….

  16. 16.

    debbie

    July 17, 2021 at 10:22 am

    @artem1s:

    I think the Universe is about to shut us all down, period.

  17. 17.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    July 17, 2021 at 10:24 am

    @jimmiraybob:

    Speaking of quarantines, apparently vile English troll Katie Hopkins has managed to get a travel exemption to Australia (ahead of 10s of thousands of actual Australians) and is apparently flouting hotel quarantine rules in SYD while spreading antivax nonsense.

    She may think she can hide behind her 2018 insolvency on fines and costs, but she may find herself completely fucked as to fines and deportation.

  18. 18.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    July 17, 2021 at 10:25 am

    Oh, and I learned this week that vile troll William Regnery died earlier in the month, so we have that going for us, which is nice.

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    July 17, 2021 at 10:29 am

    FYI.

    All students at Hawaiʻi’s 257 public schools will receive free breakfast and lunch meals for the entirety of the 2021-22 school year, thanks to a nationwide waiver from the US Department of Agriculture, the Department of Education announced….

    The waiver aims to minimize the possible spread of COVID-19 at schools across the country by eliminating meal payment transactions in school cafeterias, settings where students and cashiers may not be able to maintain proper social distancing. Federal funds will reimburse state education departments for meal costs. Source

  20. 20.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    July 17, 2021 at 10:29 am

    @dr. bloor: what’s to say it wasn’t usa basketball trying to deflect from the recent loss?

  21. 21.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    July 17, 2021 at 10:30 am

    @jimmiraybob: never. assuming the traveller is of a darker hue.

  22. 22.

    germy

    July 17, 2021 at 10:31 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    All this time I thought they were handing out condoms at the track. the way Olympic officials do.

  23. 23.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    July 17, 2021 at 10:31 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: ​
     There are so many vile trolls, I admire how you people (i.e. apparently everyone but me) can keep them straight by name.

    So which one is Regnery?

    Ah, OK. Rich white supremacist who bankrolled a lot of the alt-right.

  24. 24.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    July 17, 2021 at 10:34 am

    @germy:

    They need to really sit them down to have that talk about using protection at all times unless in a committed monogamous equine relationship…..

  25. 25.

    germy

    July 17, 2021 at 10:38 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    We can’t impose our values on them.

    In the wild state, their preferred arrangement is one male with a harem of females.

  26. 26.

    Ramalama

    July 17, 2021 at 10:42 am

    @Brachiator:

    I think I recall some David Letterman jokes about it.

    I fell into a david letterman video hellrealm. “They pelted us with rocks and garbage.”

  27. 27.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    July 17, 2021 at 10:46 am

    @germy:

    How do you put on a horse condom when you only have hooves?

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    July 17, 2021 at 10:46 am

    Oh, great. Now have the chorus of a Chordettes song stuck running inside the head, only with the word “monkeypox” in place of the one in the title.

  29. 29.

    germy

    July 17, 2021 at 10:49 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    And this is why they had the outbreak.

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    July 17, 2021 at 10:53 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Ask “Willlll-burrr!” for assistance, of course of course.

  31. 31.

    Matt McIrvin

    July 17, 2021 at 10:53 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Apparently NOT the founder of Regnery Publishing–that was his uncle.

  32. 32.

    Another Scott

    July 17, 2021 at 10:58 am

    Meanwhile, …

    [UK] Health Secretary Sajid Javid has tested positive for Covid-19; on Wednesday he visited a care home for a photo opportunity. pic.twitter.com/gsFITNTZP0

    — Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) July 17, 2021

    Grr…

    (via IamHappyToast)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  33. 33.

    Amir Khalid

    July 17, 2021 at 11:01 am

    @Matt McIrvin:
    When I saw the name, I did wonder if they were related.

  34. 34.

    Another Scott

    July 17, 2021 at 11:01 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Obligatory…

    One of my favorite moments was being in a car in LA and seeing a bumper sticker on the car in front with praying hands and "Ezekiel 23:19-20."

    I laughed with such glee, delighted in the fact that they didn't care how many people got the joke, but that I had.

    — Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) July 15, 2021

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  35. 35.

    MomSense

    July 17, 2021 at 11:12 am

    I’m procrastinating weeding my garden and watching The Good Fight.  The best thing to happen to TV is the addition of great Broadway actors.

  36. 36.

    Matt McIrvin

    July 17, 2021 at 11:15 am

    @Amir Khalid: As if they weren’t bad enough. But THIS guy, the Regnery family considers embarrassingly extreme.

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    July 17, 2021 at 11:19 am

    @MomSense

    The best thing to happen to TV is the addition of great Broadway actors.

    Never saw that hot mess of a show with Nathan Lane cast as a former opera singer who was also known for being a prolific womanizer, didja?

    ;)

  38. 38.

    Just Chuck

    July 17, 2021 at 11:20 am

    @Another Scott: I like Ezekiel 25:17 myself

  39. 39.

    MomSense

    July 17, 2021 at 11:22 am

    @NotMax:

    That’s an oldie!

  40. 40.

    MattF

    July 17, 2021 at 11:22 am

    Always darkest before the dawn. One hopes.

  41. 41.

    NotMax

    July 17, 2021 at 11:30 am

    @MomSense

    Yeah. Definitely falls head first into the “WTF were they thinking?” bin.

    On the other hand, Kristin Chenoweth was a hoot as Olive Snook on Pushing Daisies. And while normally ambivalent about her, liked Bernadette Peters on Mozart in the Jungle.

  42. 42.

    MomSense

    July 17, 2021 at 11:33 am

    @NotMax:

    Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald, and Christine Baranski are all that you need to know about this show.

  43. 43.

    MomSense

    July 17, 2021 at 11:40 am

    @NotMax:

    Chenoweth was fantastic on West Wing.

     

    @NotMax:

  44. 44.

    germy

    July 17, 2021 at 11:52 am

    Despite its name, monkeypox is probably not spread by monkeys. It was discovered in research monkeys in Denmark in 1958. Giant pouched rats, dormice and squirrels are the chief suspects, but there could be others…

     

    Something about them calling it monkey pox from ni ger ia feels racist pic.twitter.com/SfeHMCaNnf— Areola Grande (@Pinky_Balboa) July 16, 2021

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    July 17, 2021 at 11:59 am

    @MomSense

    An interlude of lyrical Chenoweth.

    ;)

  46. 46.

    MomSense

    July 17, 2021 at 12:08 pm

    @NotMax:

    That was awesome.

  47. 47.

    Catherine D.

    July 17, 2021 at 12:10 pm

    @artem1s: Huh, Cornell faculty are 98% vaccinated, grad/professional students 97%, undergrads 95%. It’s staff at 84% that drag the number down to 90%.

  48. 48.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 17, 2021 at 12:12 pm

    @Catherine D.: Tompkins county is red, sadly.  During Desert Storm, the yellow ribbons started at the Ithaca city line.

  49. 49.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    July 17, 2021 at 12:18 pm

    @Catherine D.: My guess is these faculty members are vaccinated too. They just didn’t report it, either because they didn’t bother or couldn’t figure out how.

  50. 50.

    Almost Retired

    July 17, 2021 at 12:29 pm

    I don’t know what a Giant Pouched Rat is — or if “giant” refers to the size of the rat or its pouch – but I hope we don’t have any of those around here.

  51. 51.

    Jay C

    July 17, 2021 at 12:36 pm

    @Almost Retired:

    Well, they’re not actually rats; and the “pouched” refers to their cheeks: but they are pretty big.

    And apparently, smart enough to be trained to detect land mines in Africa.

    But yeah, we have enough rodent-like species over here already….

  52. 52.

    Catherine D.

    July 17, 2021 at 12:38 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: Not quite as red now – housing prices have moved the yellow ribbons further out.

  53. 53.

    Catherine D.

    July 17, 2021 at 12:41 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:   Cornell knew its faculty. The surveillance testing sites have been able to upload the vaccination proof for months.

  54. 54.

    trollhattan

    July 17, 2021 at 1:09 pm

    @artem1s:

    My employer is working at getting us back into the building–halftime at first and then full. And yet, and yet, California and especially this county have increases in infections, hospitalizations, ICU cases, deaths. New vaccinations have dropped off to nearly zero and fewer than half the eligible population are fully vaccinated.

    We have a (twice-rescheduled) Zoom townhall Monday on the topic. Hoping they’ve come to their senses WRT requiring, rather than suggesting vaccinations for resuming work. I can relatively easily distance myself from jerks in day-to-day life but being boxed up with them forty hours/week is a whole other story.

  55. 55.

    A Ghost to Most

    July 17, 2021 at 1:17 pm

    It’s Texas. What could possibly go wrong?

  56. 56.

    trnc

    July 17, 2021 at 1:18 pm

    Over 50 comments on an Ebola-adjacent story, and no mention of Rand Paul yet?

    I don’t even recognize this place anymore.

  57. 57.

    gene108

    July 17, 2021 at 1:20 pm

    @A Ghost to Most:

    I don’t know about Dallas, but Houston is supposed to have some very good hospitals.

  58. 58.

    trollhattan

    July 17, 2021 at 1:26 pm

    @NotMax: Little thing has serious pipes.

  59. 59.

    oatler.

    July 17, 2021 at 1:28 pm

    @NotMax:

    Chenoweth was great in “American Gods” as Easter.

  60. 60.

    bjacques

    July 17, 2021 at 1:31 pm

    @gene108: just wait until Monkey Pox Delta, coincidentally also my new favorite band name.

  61. 61.

    persistentillusion

    July 17, 2021 at 1:36 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: The Regnerys are far more loathsome that you know.  The paterfamilias lived in my hometown.  He had established a trust for his demented mother.  I was one of the Trust Officers assigned to the account and it was apparent that he was field-stripping his mother’s assets.  Couldn’t even wait for her passing.  The whole family was widely reviled.​
      ETA and there were a lot of them, all horribly greedy and dismissive of the little people (i.e. anyone not fortunate enough to be a Regnery. And their publishing house put out rascist, homophobic and sexist tracts by the cubic yardfull.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - beckya57 - Copper Canyon, Mexico, April 2025
Image by beckya57 (7/31/25)

World Central Kitchen

Donate

Recent Comments

  • satby on GOP Venality Open Thread: May Van Orden Be the First of Many Defections… (Jul 10, 2025 @ 6:37am)
  • Suzanne on GOP Venality Open Thread: May Van Orden Be the First of Many Defections… (Jul 10, 2025 @ 6:30am)
  • Steve LaBonne on GOP Venality Open Thread: May Van Orden Be the First of Many Defections… (Jul 10, 2025 @ 6:29am)
  • hueyplong on Wednesday Night Open Thread (Jul 10, 2025 @ 6:27am)
  • Baud on GOP Venality Open Thread: May Van Orden Be the First of Many Defections… (Jul 10, 2025 @ 6:26am)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Feeling Defeated?  If We Give Up, It's Game Over

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!