• 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.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickle?”

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

White supremacy is terrorism.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

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

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

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

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / The Monkeypox Scare: Recommended Reading

The Monkeypox Scare: Recommended Reading

by Anne Laurie|  May 23, 20222:31 pm| 8 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Healthcare, Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

President Biden was asked about monkeypox before he boarded AF1 from South Korea ✈️ to Japan. pic.twitter.com/WuaaO5JGg0

— Asma Khalid (@asmamk) May 22, 2022

Next day:

"No, I don't think so," Biden says at press conference in Tokyo when asked if monkey pox may cause a pandemic like coronavirus. "I just don't think it rises to a level of kind of concern that existed with Covid 19."

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) May 23, 2022

EVERYBODY CALM DOWN (for the moment).  The status quo hasn’t, as far as I can tell, changed much since my last post:  Monkeypox is a known viral infection, for which we have a workable (smallpox) vaccine, that has now been diagnosed in approximately a hundred persons (almost entirely — so far — men who have sex with men) in countries (Europe, America, Canada, Israel, Australia) where it’s a novelty, at a time when doctors are a little gun-shy about ‘novel’ diseases.  Here’s the best short summary I’ve seen so far:

https://twitter.com/AP_Europe/status/1528670887138017287

… In an interview with The Associated Press, Dr. David Heymann, who formerly headed WHO’s emergencies department, said the leading theory to explain the spread of the disease was sexual transmission among gay and bisexual men at two raves held in Spain and Belgium. Monkeypox has not previously triggered widespread outbreaks beyond Africa, where it is endemic in animals.

“We know monkeypox can spread when there is close contact with the lesions of someone who is infected, and it looks like sexual contact has now amplified that transmission,” said Heymann…

To date, WHO has recorded more than 90 cases of monkeypox in a dozen countries including Britain, Spain, Israel, France, Switzerland, the U.S. and Australia.

Madrid’s senior health official said on Monday that the Spanish capital has recorded 30 confirmed cases so far. Enrique Ruiz Escudero said authorities are investigating possible links between a recent Gay Pride event in the Canary Islands, which drew some 80,000 people, and cases at a Madrid sauna.

Heymann chaired an urgent meeting of WHO’s advisory group on infectious disease threats on Friday to assess the ongoing epidemic and said there was no evidence to suggest that monkeypox might have mutated into a more infectious form…

WHO said confirmed cases have so far been the less severe West African group of monkeypox viruses and appeared to be linked to a virus that was first detected in exported cases from Nigeria to Britain, Israel and Singapore in 2018-2019.

The U.N. agency said the outbreak is “a highly unusual event” and said the fact that cases are being seen in so many different countries suggests the disease may have been silently spreading for some time. The agency’s Europe director warned that as summer begins across the continent, mass gatherings, festivals and parties could accelerate the spread of monkeypox…

Heymann, who is also a professor of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the monkeypox outbreak was likely a random event that might be traceable to a single infection.

“It’s very possible there was somebody who got infected, developed lesions on the genitals, hands or somewhere else, and then spread it to others when there was sexual or close, physical contact,” Heymann hypothesized. “And then there were these international events that seeded the outbreak around the world, into the U.S. and other European countries.”

He emphasized that the disease was unlikely to trigger widespread transmission.

“This is not COVID,” he said. “We need to slow it down, but it does not spread in the air and we have vaccines to protect against it.” Heymann said studies should be conducted rapidly to determine if monkeypox could be spread by people without symptoms and that populations at risk of the disease should take precautions to protect themselves.

 

Per the BBC:

Anyone at the highest risk of having caught #monkeypox should isolate for 21 days, official guidance says. The advice, from the #UK Health Security Agency (@UKHSA), applies to anyone who has had direct or household contact with a confirmed case. BBC News https://t.co/Y684XgMqG0

— P&S Chemist (@pschemist) May 23, 2022

https://twitter.com/maiamajumder/status/1528542720964411392

https://twitter.com/maiamajumder/status/1528545341880123392

What worries me, right now, is the potential for all the worst people to make things uglier by stigmatizing a minority, fundraising on others’ problems while ginning up paranoia among their deluded followers:

Only in #Texas : Alex Jones, Peter Hotez, and now Joe Rogan and Elon Musk, quite an interesting mix. from ⁦@bruce_y_lee⁩ ⁦@Forbes⁩ https://t.co/YH6FZBrHUV

— Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) May 22, 2022

 

Why is this messaging from Brownstone so harmful?

"Stigma directed at a particular group of individuals fuels fear & seriously impedes upon outbreak investigation, case identification & public health interventions," say @Boghuma @klts0 @Neurofourier https://t.co/1hChKo3Sqo pic.twitter.com/dAAooIs0o2

— Prof. Gavin Yamey MD MPH (@GYamey) May 22, 2022

 

Here we go: Seamless integration of monkeypox into lab leak conspiracy fantasies to create a chimera of profound stupidity.

I read this ghastly article so you don’t have to. This is what happens when one is completely ignorant of basic biology & wholly uninterested in the truth. pic.twitter.com/9RkWamStna

— Dr. Angela Rasmussen (@angie_rasmussen) May 22, 2022

 

For the truly worried, or obsessed:

Fantastically detailed tracker. See the spreadsheet. https://t.co/s7uhtK6bP7

— Jon Cohen (@sciencecohen) May 21, 2022

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Monday Morning Open Thread: President Biden, in His Element
Next Post: Columbia Journalism Review Features NYT Pitchbot (DougJ) Columbia Journalism Review Features NYT Pitchbot (DougJ) 1»

Reader Interactions

8Comments

  1. 1.

    MisterForkbeard

    May 23, 2022 at 10:44 am

    My understanding has always been:

    1) It’s not very communicable
    2) We have a working vaccine for it
    3) Not many people have it

    If two of these were wrong it would be call for concern, but right now it’s just media and Republicans yammering about it for the same reason.

  2. 2.

    Joe Falco

    May 23, 2022 at 10:49 am

    Wouldn’t be surprised if the disinformation peddlers worked in an angle that the monkeypox came from all those made-up “bio labs” supposedly in Ukraine that those wily Americans were using as fronts to develop bio and chemical weapons against a peaceful Russia.

  3. 3.

    WereBear

    May 23, 2022 at 10:55 am

    It’s very low on my list as I doubt I’ll be exposed as this rate. The two hours I just spent stocking up the domicile is the most I expect to be out among the public this week.

    Pandemic is a great time to work on a new book :)

  4. 4.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    May 23, 2022 at 11:21 am

    The archaeologist in Africa I know on line was saying that part of the initiation into a Warlord’s gang is to sexualy assualt a chimpanze. So now we have Monkeypox, thanks murderous Warlords. Admittedly she takes a dim view of African Warlords since one of them murdered her husband, but still.

    And why doesn’t Rand Paul move to some failed African states since that’s his idea of paradise?

  5. 5.

    CaseyL

    May 23, 2022 at 11:33 am

    “And why doesn’t Rand Paul move to some failed African states since that’s his idea of paradise?”

    If Rand Paul moved to anywhere in Africa, I’d feel sorry for them and happy for us. If he moved there and got monkeypox, I might even throw a party.

  6. 6.

    MaiNaem mobile

    May 23, 2022 at 1:28 pm

    I saw this article a couple of days ago. https://oxpeckers.org/2022/05/drcs-great-ape-trade/
    I couldn’t finish reading the article because I can’t deal with the cruelty here. What got me though was that the guy’s Swiss customers only wanted bushmeat. This article is written in 2022. After COVID, Ebola and AIDS why would somebody want to eat bushmeat. Also in Switzerland? WTF. Why would wealthy people want to keep apes as pets in China and Dubai? Aren’t the wealthy in China more likely to have gone abroad and been educated abroad. Dubai is the same deal.

  7. 7.

    Old Man Shadow

    May 23, 2022 at 1:45 pm

    So…. you’re saying we should all panic and run into the streets screaming and fighting with our neighbors to the death over toilet paper?

  8. 8.

    Stephen

    May 24, 2022 at 12:19 am

    I suspect the gents initially fingered as responsible for this outbreak would’ve been better off spanking the monkey. Sorry, not sorry…

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Political Action

Postcard Writing Information

Recent Comments

  • CaseyL on Monday Morning Open Thread: Let’s F**king Go! (Sep 25, 2023 @ 11:55am)
  • eclare on Monday Morning Open Thread: Let’s F**king Go! (Sep 25, 2023 @ 11:55am)
  • glc on Menendez, Sinema & the Senate Map (Sep 25, 2023 @ 11:54am)
  • bbleh on Menendez, Sinema & the Senate Map (Sep 25, 2023 @ 11:51am)
  • Captain C on Menendez, Sinema & the Senate Map (Sep 25, 2023 @ 11:50am)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

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

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
We All Need A Little Kindness
What Has Biden Done for You Lately?

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

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

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Cole & Friends Learn Español

Introductory Post
Cole & Friends Learn Español

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

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

Email sent!