15“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” Matthew 7:15-20
Just one week ago there was a common warning about the spread of Monkey Pox. As reported by NBC News in the story with this headline “Monkeypox is being driven overwhelmingly by sex between men, major study finds”. This same narrative was also reported by the CDC on June 24, 2022:
”Most (but not all) cases among gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men”
This is an important piece of public health information that is no longer how Monkey Pox is being described by CDC. Instead of focusing on the population at greatest risk (sound familiar?) just three weeks (July 22, 2022) after making that statement CDC issued this instruction to those who will be responsible for developing public health communications about Monkey Pox ( Reducing Stigma in Monkeypox Communication and Community Engagement).
”Emphasize that anyone can get monkeypox and promote it as a public health concern for all. Focusing on cases among gay and bisexual men may inadvertently stigmatize this population and create a false sense of safety among those who are not gay and bisexual men.”
Technically, that assertion that “anyone can get monkeypox” is true but in reality this appears to be more accurate:
”We report 528 infections diagnosed between April 27 and June 24, 2022, at 43 sites in 16 countries. Overall, 98% of the persons with infection were gay or bisexual men, 75% were White, and 41% had human immunodeficiency virus infection; the median age was 38 years. Transmission was suspected to have occurred through sexual activity in 95% of the persons with infection.”
And here is the authors’ concluding statement:
”Because viruses know no borders, the world needs to move cohesively and quickly to close knowledge gaps and to contain the outbreak.”(emphasis added)
What does this study teach us? That’s simple. Monkey Pox is a sexually transmitted disease that is occurring almost exclusively among homo- and bi-sexual men world wide. It is also true that if a heterosexual individual comes in close contact with an infected person or that person’s infected items such as clothing or bed clothing, they are at risk of contracting the virus.
But for some reason the CDC believes that a clear communication about this STD wouldn’t be fair to the population at greatest risk and so rather than focus their attention on that group they have chosen to blur the epidemiology and confuse and frighten an already COVID-19 sensitized American population by emphasizing that public health communications about Monkey Pox should stress that “anyone can get monkeypox”.
Perhaps they don’t want to taint their efforts to normalize the abnormal particularly when that effort applies to our children.
CDC has lost its way.
Union, KY
3 August 2022
MONKEY POX
Larry, I’m an RN and honestly, nothing makes medical - or common - sense to me about this MonkeyPox - or Covid. I appreciate your input always. Keeps us on our toes!!
Exactly.
I hope Phyllis is doing well.