Monkeypox is Not an STI You Assholes!

 

The spread of monkeypox in the U.S. could represent the dawn of a new sexually transmitted disease, though some health officials say the virus that causes pimple-like bumps might yet be contained before it gets firmly established. https://t.co/SlsTY3pmCz

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 22, 2022

The premise is wrong.  The conceit of the story is working backwards from the demographic that the disease appeared in to make judgement values about how the disease spreads. This is irresponsible. Monkeypox is related to smallpox. and smallpox was extremely bad. And FYI, although smallpox is basically eradicated, it's because of vaccinations that were stopped for many Gen X and future generations. 

That's right Millennials and Gen Z--the PTB (Powers that be) knew smallpox might still be a thing (weaponized by terrorists, existing in unvaccinated pockets around the world) that might eventually come back to bite our asses. Or at least they should have understood a variant thereof would--see, all of epidemiology is variants--literal proofs of evolution, happening all the time. But we are vulnerable because we were told the disease was eradicated, because it might have existed still, but in places too remote and fucked up for us to consider. 

But we are now going to see monkeypox in populations that are not men seeking men and people will blame and stigmatize gay men for these people being infected, because of how we failed to message how the disease is actually spread, and this will further marginalize already marginalized people. 

I don't know why disease reporting is still this way, but I hate it.  We are dealing with a lot right now with the ongoing COVID-19 menace, with for the love of god polio, and even tuberculosis probably because Covid-19 softened people up. We've never known more communal physical vulnerability. It is absolutely important that government agencies be more entirely outspoken. Factual and demographically correct--as in: don't further marginalize the people who are stricken--warn about what realistically is the threat to anyone else.  

Anyway, the takeaway from what I am saying is, whatever the CDC or any other public health agency is about, I am telling you monkeypox is actually like measles or chickenpox and is about proximity to body fluids that includes aerosols. and doesn't need to involve sex at all.  Referencing the current epidemiological profile to try and make decisions about how to contain the spread will be unnecessarily marginalizing of already marginalized folks. And assuming the spread is about these supposedly suspect people is already working from a mythology about who these folks are and who they contact in their lives. 

Real scientists should be on who they really need to contact, without lazy judgment values. Or else this will be rampant, because people used their prejudices, not their commonsense, to try to handle an understandable public safety concern. 

UPDATE: This is what happens when you fail to do science right, or messaging right, and don't address public health issues with a full understanding of who your public is:

This screencap is Rep. Margorie Taylor Greene asking "If monkeypox is a sexually transmitted disease, why are kids getting it?"  She is going directly towards pedophilia as a point of contact, an utterly unnecessary and inflammatory supposition to air, but one that bad, inept messaging enables. This is 2022. You need to understand who you are trying to speak to and appreciate the epidemiology of misinformation and its vectors.  MTG wants to see gay people die just for general purposes, and failure to explain what this disease is and how it truly spreads regardless of the present demographic is the kind of science malpractice that will lead to a witch hunt. 

I won't say we as a species are better than this, but that responsible people should know better than this.