There have now been more than 17,000 cases of monkeypox infections in at least 75 countries, including the United States. Monkeypox isn’t fatal, but it can cause fever, rashes and extremely painful lesions. It’s most often spread through close, intimate physical contact. On Saturday, for the second time in two years, the World Health Organization declared a global emergency to address the spread. The last time, it was for COVID-19; this time, for monkeypox.
Here in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported more than 2,800 cases of monkeypox so far across 44 states, with the largest outbreaks in New York, California, Illinois, Florida, D.C. and Georgia. The White House has not declared a public health emergency, that could bolster the U.S. response to the monkeypox outbreak. White House COVID response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said, quote, “It’s an ongoing, but a very active conversation at HHS.” That’s the Department of Health and Human Services.
I’ll actually start with the second part. Monkeypox is not a new virus. And this is sort of why our community has been so frustrated by the lack of urgency to get us the tools we need to care for ourselves and each other and to prevent this virus. It was discovered in 1958 in animals and was shown in 1970 to exist in humans. It’s a virus that’s related to smallpox. You mentioned earlier that it’s not deadly. It’s not very often deadly, but in this outbreak so far this year, there have been five deaths, all
— source democracynow.org | Jul 25, 2022
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