Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Monkey Business: Contact tracing, masks, and vaccines that might or might not work

34 cases reported in the US.  No deaths to be found. Is this condition even serious?  No matter--it's a great excuse for contact tracing! From the Defender:

"Monkeypox “offers a new cause for contact tracing,” Axios reported Tuesday, pointing out that proponents of contact tracing who were disappointed by the tool’s relative lack of effectiveness in mitigating the spread of airborne COVID-19 are now excited about the possibility of putting the technology to use for monkeypox — because the disease is spread through physical contact...

Meanwhile, the efficacy of a monkeypox vaccine is still in question, according to Ira Longini, a biostatistician at the University of Florida who is advising the WHO.

“The truth is, we don’t know the efficacy of any of these monkeypox vaccines,” Longini told Science...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday scrubbed a recommendation from its website that U.S. travelers wear masks to protect against monkeypox, stating health officials wanted to avoid “confusion” after experts emphasized the disease is not airborne.

The move came just one day after the CDC raised its monkeypox alert to level 2 (the highest is level 3), advising Americans to take precautions while traveling but suggesting  Americans don’t need to cancel travel plans.

Infectious disease specialist Monica Gandhi on Monday told “NewsNation Prime” scientists believe prolonged intimate physical contact is required for the disease to spread...

“It’s definitely not airborne, and it takes a lot of contact to get it,” Gandhi said, “which is why we don’t think it’s a major risk to the general population.”

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