The WHO has declared an international Public Health Emergency for a more lethal version of Monkeypox, now called mpox, which is clade 1b, aka 1 MPXV, and comes with a 4% fatality rate (compared to Covid's current approximately 0.7% rate -- or 1 in 25 vs 1 in 150). However, Forbes reports that clade I could "kill up to 10% of people."
The different "clades" (a broad grouping of variants) matter. Anyone can get it regardless of sexual orientation, but men who have sex with men had a significantly higher risk of getting Clade II, which was big in 2022. Right now, we've got Clade 1. an airborne infectious disease that is more severe. In Burundi, almost half of the cases are in children under 5, and, from Forbes, "children younger than 15 years old now make up more than 70% of cases and 85% of deaths. . . . The outbreak in children suggests that clade I is transmitted through air." So all the comments about gay sex are moot for this one, like these lovely examples:
In the ultimate irony, August 14th, the day the WHO declared a PH emergency is the same day Nassau County passed a mask ban. This clade has much faster transmission, possibly asymptomatic, and was confirmed in Sweden on August 15, and in Newfoundland wastewater the next day. Masks help decrease transmission.
The WHO says,
"Common symptoms of mpox include a rash which may last for 2-4 weeks. This may start with, or be followed by, fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen glands. . . . In some people, the illness can be severe or lead to complications and even death. Newborn babies, children, people who are pregnant, and people with underlying immune deficiencies may be at higher risk."
There's a vaccine, but right now in Ontario only members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community qualify and they must also have had an STI in the last year OR have multiple partners, using information on the virus that's two years old. The meds used as treatment in the 2022 outbreak don't appear to work on this one, so inventing some partners might be the way to go.
WSWS explains that we're getting this mpox emergency at the same time as another Covid wave and the H5N1 bird flu, yet no US candidate is broaching the subject.
"The public health response to the more virulent mpox strain shows the same troubling pattern as with coronavirus and the previous mpox outbreak: worsening situation reports, punctuated by continued inaction and a laissez faire attitude about the dangers posed by these pathogens. . . . As WHO data shows, children are nearly four times more likely to die from the virus than adults. While the case fatality rate is 2.4% for adults, it jumps to 8.6% among those 15 and younger. Of the mpox deaths reported in 2024, 62% were among children under five. . . . .Patients with confirmed or suspected infection or exposure must also be isolated for at least four to eight weeks. . . .
As one epidemiologist and mpox expert said to Save the Children: The worst case I've seen is that of a six-week-old baby who was just two weeks old when he contracted mpox and has now been in our care for four weeks. He got infected because hospital overcrowding meant he and his mother were forced to share a room whit someone else who had the virus." . . .
The driving force of public health policy under capitalism is not saving lives or preventing debilitating illness, but minimizing the impact on capitalist profit-making. This has produced devastating consequences in teh still-raging coronavirus pandemic. . . .
The only way that the pandemic can be stopped is through a globally-coordinated elimination strategy, in which the entire world’s population acts in solidarity and with a collective determination to enforce a broad-based public health program. . . . After four years of the pandemic, it is abundantly clear that such a global strategy will never arise under world capitalism, which subordinates all public health spending to the insatiable profit interests of a money-made financial oligarchy."
NOBODY is prepared to follow a 4-8 week isolation period for a case. We've been advised, amid a more GI affecting Covid variant, that kids only shitting their guts out more than three times/day should be kept home from school. How long will it be before we send kids to school covered in open sores??
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