Monkeypox

[lukeboybare]

On 5/20/2022 at 11:24 AM, Leather69 said:

@SFSloppyAsnBottom

This is another of the viruses that have been transmitted from Africa.. Ebola etc. Europe has opened it's borders to swarms from africa seeking welfare etc and this has come with them. We have now had cases here in Australia with travelers who have come back from European holidays. (Sydney and Melbourne). Don't know how it will turn out in the longer term.. but it's another thing to worry about.

Living in Europe here and that information is incorrect

Some people went to African states and returned with the virus .... Europeans went and got it not the other way around

Monkey pox has been around for a while also 

its nothing t be that concerned about anyway its rarely fatal and generally clears up after 4 weeks 

[NWUSHorny]

So far this doesn't sound like a serious concern, and even less of a concern for those of us old enough to have received the smallpox vaccination as a child. 

[viking8x6]

7 hours ago, hntnhole said:

About 30 minutes ago, the CDC released a statement advising that the LGBT+ Community is at greatest risk of contracting monkey pox.

 

7 hours ago, hntnhole said:

By all means, guys - check out the information on the CDC website for yourselves.

I could find no information on the CDC website that included the quoted statement above. I looked pretty extensively. Please provide a link!!

[ErosWired]

Unlike COVID, Monkeypox is not a new, unknown disease that has just appeared and nothing is known about what it does or how to treat it. Unlike COVID, vaccine regimes that can effectively manage an outbreak of this illness are already researched, approved and stockpiled - and indeed according to latest news are being made available now to treat affected communities. This isn’t going to explode like COVID. We’re all shell-shocked and gun-shy now over diseases, especially anything that comes in from abroad.

But put things in perspective. As I write this there is one confirmed case of Monkeypox in the United States, and six presumptive cases. Seven cases. When in trouble, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.

Monkeypox is not, by the way, an STD. It is a contact infection. You don’t have to be having sex to get it, but it isn’t all that easy to get regardless. The reason sexy people seem to be turning up with it ought to be obvious - intimate behavior requires sustained physical contact, which automatically increases the time/opportunity the pathogen has to transfer to a new host.

Everyone stay calm. Also, avoid fucking any monkeys.

[fskn]

Thank you for mentioning the CDC briefing, @hntnhole. As of this writing, the 2022 investigation link on the CDC's monkeypox page doesn't refer specifically to gay men, and in the CDC's online newsroom, the transcript of today's briefing isn't yet available. Hopefully we'll have something to point to soon.

This is exactly how a public health response works. So far, one common thread is that many of the suspected infections are among gay men. More will be known about mode of transmission and about incidence (new cases) and prevalence (existing infections) in specific populations as more people are observed and as testing is completed.

@NWUSHorny, I definitely don't want to be alarmist, but this situation is serious, if only because of what we don't know yet.

People may remember a meningitis outbreak among gay men some years ago. It was the work of a local public health department, that time in Los Angeles, if memory serves, that led to a recommendation that gay men receive an already-available meningitis vaccine.

I have no idea whether vaccination will be recommended in this situation, and if so, how broadly. But it is nearly impossible for the average US adult born before the age of electronic medical records to produce original records of childhood vaccinations. We can make assumptions based on vaccination recommendations or requirements that would have applied in the years when the person was growing up, but even that information can be hard to find. Different recommendations or requirements applied in different places and at different times. (For example, a vaccination that might merely have been recommended by a national government might have been required by a particular state, or in a particular school or university system.)

When we are talking about smallpox, which was eradicated so long ago in most countries, it could be hard to sort those who are protected from those who are not.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health released the following provider alert today, about a confirmed, non-travel-related case in California:

[think before following links] https://www.sfcdcp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SFDPH-Health-Advisory-Monkeypox-US-without-travel-to-endemic-FINAL-2022.5.24.pdf

@viking8x6, this document links to California Department of Public Health and US CDC alerts that do mention men who have sex with men (MSM) or gay men.

Edited May 25, 2022 by fskn
Full, official names of public health orgs

[ErosWired]

36 minutes ago, fskn said:

I definitely don't want to be alarmist, but this situation is serious, if only because of what we don't know yet.

That’s the definition of alarmist.

[fskn]

35 minutes ago, ErosWired said:

That’s the definition of alarmist.

On the contrary, when the leading public health department in my area, and one of the leading public health departments in the world, when it comes to serving LGBTQ people, issues an alert, I can reliably conclude that people who know more about this than I do — and much more than random commentators on Internet forums might know — are worried.

[NWUSHorny]

@fskn How effective are our childhood smallpox vaccinations at preventing serious monkeypox disease? I tried to look up which vaccines were in common use in the US in 1970 (when I would have received mine), and their efficacy against monkeypox? Unfortunately I didn't have a lot of luck beyond that it was likely Dryvax manufactured by Wyeth.

I haven't called my parents to have them check my vaccination records to see if I could get any more specifics (yes they do still have whatever was provided at the time). I do have the scar and know that my parents talk about insisting my youngest sibling get it in the mid 1970's after the smallpox vaccine was no longer mandatory.

I just booked a trip for July to indulge my most hedonistic wants, and it has been a really long 2 and a half years since the last time I was able to make a trip like the one I have planned.

Edited May 25, 2022 by NWUSHorny

[ErosWired]

10 minutes ago, fskn said:

On the contrary, when the leading public health department in my area, and one of the leading public health departments in the world, when it comes to serving LGBTQ people, issues an alert, I can reliably conclude that people who know more about this than I do — and much more than random commentators on Internet forums might know — are worried.

I don’t dispute that. But what you said above, and what I quoted, is that the situation should be considered serious because of what we don’t know, not because of what authorities do know. Amplifying concern in a vacuum of information is alarmist, by definition. But as you seem to have changed the parameters of your claim by your reply to me, the matter is moot.

There is also, however, the question of the rather nebulous use of the term “serious”, which could mean any number of things depending on context, but absent context tends to be viewed in its most sensational aspect. A deputy director of the CDC was cited yesterday as saying that at these case counts there’s not a huge risk to the general community. So how serious is serious? This isn’t the first Monkeypox outbreak in the United States - the first was in 2003, and tallied a total of 47 cases. How serious is 47 in a population of  329,000,000? The disease itself is self-limiting, with symptoms usually resolving in 2-4 weeks. There is a risk of severe cases with resulting fatality, which is certainly serious by any measure, but the risk is small, and transmission rates are not high. The re-emergence of Monkeypox in Nigeria over the last five years has resulted in approximately eight (8) confirmed infections internationally. How serious is that on a planet of 8,000,000,000 people?

What, indeed, is the purpose of sounding a blaring alarm at this stage? What, exactly, are we to do? The CDC guidance says to be in the lookout for symptoms of it. That’s it. They’re specifically not recommending that Pride festivities be canceled or that anyone not go to them unless they feel sick. If we are to take our cue from the Centers for Disease Control, it would appear that, by their metric, the sky is not falling.

Incidentally, from a purely rhetorical standpoint, you have no way of knowing how much “random commentators on the internet” may know about this or any subject such that you can reliably draw any conclusion whatsoever in that regard. That is not a sustainable point of debate. Your point is only valid inasmuch as it draws upon the authority of any person who knows more than you do - which we infer you to mean the specialists in leading public health departments. Certainly this is persuasive, but for all you or I know one of our “random commentators” here could be a leading specialist in epidemiology who happens to fuck bareback.

[fskn]

@NWUSHorny, no matter what, I hope you won't be discouraged from taking your trip. Let's hope that there is much more information by July!

Your question is a good one, and it's worth asking your medical professional.

(For example, I asked my primary care provider whether she recommends that I get the smallpox vaccine. She replied a few days ago, before the latest CDC, California, and San Francisco public health alerts. Even with the limited information available a week ago, she said she'd have to consult with a specialist in infectious diseases. I mention all of this because some commentators dismiss the whole business as if it were simple, already settled, and just not worth worrying about. Professionals can't say yet.)

The CDC has this to say:

"Because monkeypox virus is closely related to the virus that causes smallpox, the smallpox vaccine can protect people from getting monkeypox. Past data from Africa suggests that the smallpox vaccine is at least 85% effective in preventing monkeypox. The effectiveness of JYNNEOS™ against monkeypox was concluded from a clinical study on the immunogenicity of JYNNEOS and efficacy data from animal studies."

As I read this, the 85% effectiveness figure comes from a study of the older type of smallpox vaccine, which is like the product you received (scar and all), and is one of the two forms currently approved and available in the US. That study was done in Africa. I don't see a specific figure for the newer form, which is also approved and available in the US. It could be that its human and animal trials predicted the same 85% effectiveness, or some other high number, not mentioned.

85% is great efficacy and great effectiveness for a vaccine. That said, it would be important to read the three studies mentioned (and sadly, not cited on that CDC page) to understand whether they are relevant to your situation. For example, I'd want to know about differences between the African context and our own. I'd also want to know for how long the human participants (or the animal subjects, in the case of one of the studies) were monitored, and what other information exists about the duration of the protection from smallpox vaccine products. Most of all, I'd want to know whether my medical professional recommends vaccination, or revaccination, for a person like you who is lucky enough to have had a childhood smallpox vaccination and to be sure that he had it!

I hope that this is of some help.

Reference:

[think before following links] https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/clinicians/smallpox-vaccine.html#anchor_1545415175541

[NWUSHorny]

Thank you, I did find that bulletin when I was googling late this afternoon.

[plisken]

European authorities identify the epicenter of the outbreak as the Gran Canary Gay Pride (from May 5th) with some 80.000 people

[hntnhole]

13 hours ago, viking8x6 said:

I could find no information on the CDC website that included the quoted statement above. I looked pretty extensively. Please provide a link!!

I don't know how to do that.  It was the opening subject on John King's noon broadcast (EST) on CNN yesterday.  Maybe the people who make the links at the CDC hadn't done it yet?  A little later, one of the talking heads specifically mentioned Ft. Lauderdale/Miami.

Edited May 25, 2022 by hntnhole
phrasing

[viking8x6]

OK, I went back to the CDC site and looked some more. It appears that what the news agencies picked up was a telebriefing on Monday 23 May. The CDC site has a recording of it, but it's 53 minutes long and I'm not up for that today. They claim that a transcript will be posted, but it has not been as of now (afternoon EDT Wed 25 May).

[think before following links] https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/a0523-monkeypox.html

[fuckholedc]

3 hours ago, viking8x6 said:

OK, I went back to the CDC site and looked some more. It appears that what the news agencies picked up was a telebriefing on Monday 23 May. The CDC site has a recording of it, but it's 53 minutes long and I'm not up for that today. They claim that a transcript will be posted, but it has not been as of now (afternoon EDT Wed 25 May).

[think before following links] [think before following links] https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/a0523-monkeypox.html

From CNN: [think before following links] https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/23/health/monkeypox-lgbtq/index.html