from the let's-not-monkey-around-with-this-one dept.
WHO Declares Monkeypox A Global Emergency Amid Surge In Cases
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries an “emergency of international concern”.
The WHO label – a “public health emergency of international concern” – is designed to sound an alarm that a coordinated international response is needed and could unlock funding and global efforts to collaborate on sharing vaccines and treatments.
Governments are advised to raise awareness among doctors and hospitals, take protective measures in suspected cases and educate members of the population on how to protect themselves from infection.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision to issue the declaration despite a lack of consensus among experts serving on the UN health agency’s emergency committee. It was the first time the chief of the UN health agency has taken such an action.
Announcing his decision to declare the health emergency during a media briefing in Geneva, Tedros confirmed that the committee had failed to reach a consensus, with nine members against and six in favour of the declaration.
“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little and which meets the criteria in the international health regulations,” Tedros said on Saturday.
Monkeypox Declared a Global Health Emergency by the World Health Organization
Monkeypox declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization:
Tedros clarified that the Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations, convened last Thursday, could not reach a consensus about Monkeypox.
He explained that WHO has to consider five elements to decide whether an outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.
- Information provided by countries – which in this case shows that the virus has spread rapidly to many countries that have not seen it before;
- The three criteria for declaring a public health emergency of international concern under the International Health Regulations— being an extraordinary event, a public health risk to other States and a potential need to require a coordinated international response;
- The advice of the Emergency Committee, which did not reach a consensus;
- Scientific principles, evidence and other relevant information – which according to Tedros are currently insufficient and leave them with many unknowns;
- The risk to human health, international spread, and the potential for interference with international traffic.
Commitee member's in support of declaring the emergency expressed that future waves of Monkeypox cases are expected as the virus will be introduced in additional susceptible populations, and that the current magnitude of the outbreak might be underestimated.
They also cited the "moral duty" to deploy all means and tools available to respond to the outbreak, as highlighted by leaders of the LGBTI+ communities from several countries, bearing in mind that the community currently most affected outside Africa is the same initially reported to be affected in the early stages of HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The experts underscored that the modes of transmission sustaining the current outbreak are still not fully understood.
(Score: 2, Troll) by John Bresnahan on Monday July 25 2022, @01:10PM (24 children)
Maybe if homosexuals stopped having promiscuous sex, this wouldn't be a problem: https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/monkeypox-driven-overwhelmingly-sex-men-major-study-finds-rcna39564 [nbcnews.com]
Also, what gives the Director-General of WHO the right to ignore the committee?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by HammeredGlass on Monday July 25 2022, @01:30PM (5 children)
"98% of cases are in men who have sex with men"
woo, guess that settles it
"two young children have been diagnosed with it"
I have questions
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @01:37PM (4 children)
Both of them got it from gay men: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/2-children-have-contracted-monkeypox-cdc-director-says.html [beckershospitalreview.com]
"Nearly all cases -- 99% -- have been reported among individuals who identify as gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men, McQuiston said Friday." (https://abcnews.go.com/Health/us-confirms-cases-monkeypox-children/story?id=87268855)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 25 2022, @02:35PM (3 children)
and how many cases are presently going unreported?
The MSM population is generally pretty good about reporting health problems and submitting to testing, as opposed to the general population.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday July 25 2022, @03:22PM (2 children)
Probably not a lot of them, at least in the western world. Apparently from the reports it's supposed to be fairly obvious and painful. Not something you won't notice that you have and others around you are bound to note it to, unlike that other current plague that is more stealthy.
Still there is an upside --- it has a funny name this time. Apparently tho they are starting to complain about it. Nobody wants to be associated with monkeys no matter how cute and funny they are. Better to have a clinical name straight out of the Matrix -- Oh I see you have Alpha-56b; scary stuff!
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 25 2022, @03:40PM
>from the reports it's supposed to be fairly obvious and painful.
When it's full blown, sure... any silent carriers out there? Typhoid Mary was a real person.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Funny) by SpockLogic on Monday July 25 2022, @04:12PM
PSA
If you find you have a desire to climb trees and/or an insatiable appetite for banana bread, go get tested.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 4, Insightful) by khallow on Monday July 25 2022, @01:43PM (11 children)
Welp, doesn't look like they're stopping. What's plan B? Turn a moderate disease control issue into a moral panic?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @01:50PM (9 children)
Why would we let them decide how to behave in the face of an epidemic? We didn't let the population do that with COVID, why is Monkeypox different? Since they don't seem to be able to control themselves, maybe we have to enforce rules for everyone's safety.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Monday July 25 2022, @01:54PM (4 children)
Because you don't have any choice. It's like asking why do I choose to live no more than 120 years. A lot of things are not ours to decide, at least at the drop of a hat.
Who is "we"? I'll just note that a lot of people in the western US where I reside did a lot of dumb things that spread covid despite what was supposedly not letted.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @02:03PM (3 children)
Of course we do! That's what laws are all about. Society has the right and responsibility to force people to behave in a way that doesn't harm or kill others. If homosexuals are engaging in behavior that is dangerous to others, and since they seem to be unwilling or unable to control their own behavior, society can and should do it for them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Monday July 25 2022, @04:43PM (2 children)
Second, what happens when they do it anyway? Force only gets you so far. My take is that we already have an example with covid and mask wearing which shows the limitations of force. Groups went out of their way to engage in covid spreading behavior because it had been turned into a political issue. Forcing people to not have unprotected sex will be even a more pointless and misdirected exercise of power.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @05:33PM (1 child)
It's not private when it results in spreading a nasty disease.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Monday July 25 2022, @09:14PM
My take is that this is particularly pointless given that we can just vaccinate against it - just like we do with covid - and the vaccination will stick a lot better too (last decades rather than months).
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Monday July 25 2022, @02:40PM (1 child)
I see. Taking the parallel with people refusing to wear a mask and infecting with COVID the unwilling others, I deduce that, in your neck of the woods, men will give you monkeypox by forcing unprotected gay penetration on you on the streets, in public transport, in the office or other public places.
Now, if you could do me a favor and tell me where you live, I'll do my best to avoid the place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @03:41PM
The more people infected, the more likely it will spread among the general population. The problem is that homosexual men work so hard at spreading diseases (see AIDS for an earlier example). Heterosexual men almost never have the opportunity to have sex with a half-dozen partners in a single night, but that's not unusual for homosexual men.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday July 25 2022, @07:52PM (1 child)
I have yet see gay men in the process of monkeypox preading sex wandering around in the grocery store.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @02:34AM
Is one of the symptoms incomprehensible sentences?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @02:22PM
Sure, it worked great in the 80s for AIDS.
Didn't it . . . ?
(Score: 4, Touché) by Opportunist on Monday July 25 2022, @03:44PM (3 children)
Wait, where have I heard that before... it does sound kinda familiar ... right, AIDS! Remember? The fag disease? Only hits fags, nothing we need to do, it's the divine punishment for buttfucking.
How did that pan out again?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @03:56PM
Turns out a lot of hetero people like to do butt-stuff to ...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @05:39PM (1 child)
AIDS has been and remains overwhelmingly a disease of homosexual men, along with a small number of IV drug users who are reckless about their paraphernalia.
It turns out that it's very difficult to contract AIDS. It pretty much requires blood-to-blood contact. Homosexual men are the only group that routinely behaves in such a way as to do that (buttfucking, as you described it), and they do so with a large number of partners.
It isn't being homosexual per se, it's engaging in wildly risky behavior over and over, insuring that a large portion of that population contracts the disease (AIDS for 40 years, Monkeypox just recently).
(Score: 3, Touché) by Opportunist on Monday July 25 2022, @06:36PM
I'd like to see some numbers to those claims.
Mostly 'cause I could use a good laugh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @03:58PM
... doctors* who under suggestion to not take samples for mpx testing unless you're a man who has sex with men, the statistical bias is jaw-droppingly malicious.
* technically, the whole american medical insurance scam, and tack on the WHO for trying to memory-hole the airborne parts of the equation.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday July 25 2022, @04:51PM
Homosexual MEN, thank you! We lesbians are the cleanest demographic for STDs on every metric.
So the problem isn't even just gay men, it's men in general. Male biology is filthy and so are male minds. Can't keep it in your pants for 10 seconds...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Redundant) by RedGreen on Monday July 25 2022, @01:49PM (14 children)
What a god damn useless organization the WHO is. They sit on their asses forever doing nothing but having their stupid meetings and issuing the oh we are not there yet directives. Waiting for the inevitable mass transmission they know is coming, to the surprise of no one with a brain, then they issue the sacred emergency declaration. What a bunch of fools giving these viruses months and months of a head start before doing a damn thing, send in the clowns pops into my mind for some reason. As soon as I heard the monkey pox was in Europe I knew exactly what was going to happen again it would be just like the last time and said it to many people. Too bad I was so correct in my prediction of what would occur, perhaps I should hit them rocket scientists up for one of them high paying jobs, ain't no way in hell I could do a worse job than them....
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 5, Insightful) by shrewdsheep on Monday July 25 2022, @02:27PM
Adapt your expectations: the WHO is a political, not a medical body.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @02:51PM (9 children)
You watched too many zombie movies and, worse, you took them for real. Infection by contact is way harder than air-borne infection.
Besides:
- it's a DNA virus, the rate of mutation is way lower than for COVID
- the already existing smallpox vaccines are 85% effective in preventing the monkepox virus [nih.gov]
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Freeman on Monday July 25 2022, @03:13PM (6 children)
I don't know about you, but most living people, haven't had a smallpox vaccine. Due to the fact that it's a terrible disease and the vaccination was considered too risky. After having essentially wiped out the infection in 99% of the world.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday July 25 2022, @03:25PM (2 children)
It's probably an age thing. Most people born before say the mid 1970's have been vaccinated against it. So I guess we are prepping for the next outbreak then. Purge the young!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @03:49PM
Aaahhh, I waited for so long for a good moment to say it.
Ok, Zoomer!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday July 25 2022, @07:10PM
Ah, I thought it was sometime before that, when they stopped routine vaccinations. So, maybe not most everyone, then.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RedGreen on Monday July 25 2022, @04:24PM (1 child)
"I don't know about you, but most living people, haven't had a smallpox vaccine."
I have that and polio, TB, mumps, measles, rubella all them preventable diseases injections that were offered to us as children and as an adult now I get all of them. I grew up in a time when science actually meant something, not like today when the Repugnant Party and their scummy ilk online denigrate it at every opportunity. The amount of people them bastards have killed make me want to line them up and shoot and piss on everyone of them murdering scum. And until the slimy bastards stop spreading the last pandemic I will still wear a mask, use a hand wash every time I touch something those disease spreading cocksuckers among us have touched.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @02:38AM
Ignoring science is a bipartisan issue. The left has just as many sacred cows as the right, they are just different ones.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @08:28PM
The third-generation Smallpox vaccine [wikipedia.org] is more like the vaccines we're used to in that's it's an injection with minimal side-effects. But we don't have a lot of it, so we're being very targeted about who gets it. The US does have ~100 million doses of the old-style smallpox vaccine stockpiled... but no one is likely to use it unless there's an actual Smallpox outbreak.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Monday July 25 2022, @04:12PM
"You watched too many zombie movies and, worse, you took them for real. Infection by contact is way harder than air-borne infection."
Does not matter to me they did it again downplayed it until even a blind man can see it, then get a call out to do something, useless assholes.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Tuesday July 26 2022, @11:21PM
Transmission of monkeypox via airborne infection is thought to be possible [archive.org] in large respiratory droplets, over a few feet.
Master of the science of the art of the science of art.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 25 2022, @09:27PM (2 children)
How did you know the inevitable mass transmission was coming? Where did that information come from?
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Monday July 25 2022, @10:31PM (1 child)
"How did you know the inevitable mass transmission was coming? Where did that information come from?"
A simple thing called logic. The first cases were reported among Gay men, seeing how they said the disease was spread by intimate body contact and the fluids that result from it, oh and it was just around pride parade time, the biggest fuck fest of the year among Gay people. This lead me to think AIDS and the stellar job Gay people have done with not eliminating that spread in their community and my mind told me here we go again they will spread it far and wide among themselves, sure enough this has proved to be the case. The result of knowing a leopard does not change it spots and will continue to do the same as was always done before, seemed like a logical inference to me about what was to come..
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 25 2022, @11:18PM
Reported by who? Or is that a WHO member?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday July 25 2022, @03:41PM
Looking at the main picture of this article: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/who-is-protected-against-monkeypox-that-decades-old-smallpox-vaccination-may-be-of-help/ [seattletimes.com]
It's not surprising that children in the same household as an infected individual, developed the infection. I'm not even surprised that a random child in the Netherlands got it. Kids generally don't wash their hands as well as they should. The typical, snot nosed kid, wiping their snot on (just a bout literally anything), touching just about anything, and then putting their fingers in their mouth or eating something without having first washed their hands. It's a thing. Looking at that picture of the open sores on a patient, it's not surprising that any kid could get it.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"