When it first started spreading outside of Africa I was concerned because the reported fatality rate was something like 5-10%<p>Now we have tens of thousands of cases outside of Africa and it doesn’t appear to be lethal at all and goes away on its own. Depending on the severity it seems like the biggest issue is pain/itchiness for a week or so.<p>So what’s the “emergency” in that context?
<i>> In an unusual move, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the declaration even though a committee of experts he had convened to study the issue was unable to reach a consensus. The same committee met just one month ago and declined to declare a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC.</i><p>What's the W.H.O. process which allows the director-general to bypass the W.H.O. process for scientific debate by experts?<p>The W.H.O. has (so far) failed to achieve international consensus on an international treaty that would give the W.H.O. the legal authority to override local health authorities (national, state, city) in the declaration of public health emergencies. If such a treaty were in effect, today's declaration by one human would have immediately affected the daily lives of 8 billion humans.<p><a href="https://inb.who.int/" rel="nofollow">https://inb.who.int/</a>
According to study published in New England Journal of medicine, 95% of studied cases were sexually transmitted almost exclusively in men who have sex with men.<p>41% of those infected with monkeypox were coinfected with HIV.<p><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/monkeypox-driven-overwhelmingly-sex-men-major-study-finds-rcna39564" rel="nofollow">https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/monk...</a><p>For anyone worried that monkeypox will be equivalent to Covid, the evidence does not support that.
Does anyone have a data source that includes <i>recoveries</i>? There’s been a lot of fearmongering over the past month based on charts of cumulative cases.
> "...There’s just nobody acting like this is a fucking emergency"
- Peter Staley<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/22/peter-staley-monkeypox-response-us-interview" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/22/peter-stale...</a><p>So, I think it's crazy that:<p>> In early June, top officials assured Staley that the US had in place a stockpile of 1.2m doses of the vaccine<p>> The problem was most of those doses weren’t ready. Just 68,000 of the doses were already located in the US; the rest were in freezers in Denmark awaiting shipment. Worse, two-thirds of the doses in Denmark had been manufactured on a new factory line that the FDA hadn’t inspected – which meant the vaccines produced on it couldn’t be used, despite approvals from the FDA’s EU counterpart, the European Medicines Agency (EMA).<p>So the US is buying a stockpile of vaccines that it considers unacceptable for use? Who does that help? Was this the result of lobbying from a US-based donor with heavy investments in specific EU producers? Is this emergency-preparedness theater?<p>The FDA reported that it _started_ inspections of that plant on July 7. To be clear, these were bought under a Trump-administration order, so they could easily have inspected that plant a long time ago. Why wait until you actually have an outbreak?<p>And of the vaccines that _were_ already FDA-approved, it really seems like the administration has really slow-walked moving them.<p>Meanwhile, in my city which has perhaps the worst outbreak in the US in per-capita terms, vaccines are scarce enough that people can wait for hours in line and then not receive it. People who are in the group who are advised to get the vaccine can call one of several phone numbers to try to get an appointment, but no one will answer.<p><a href="https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/san-francisco-monkeypox-cases-rise-17317868.php" rel="nofollow">https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/san-francisco-monkeyp...</a>
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/21/san-franciscos-lgbtq-monkeypox-vaccine-access" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/21/san-franciscos...</a><p>So while others in this thread are arguing that the WHO shouldn't be declaring this an emergency, I'm frustrated that the people calling it an emergency aren't empowered to do much.
> In an unusual move, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the declaration even though a committee of experts he had convened to study the issue was unable to reach a consensus. The same committee met just one month ago and declined to declare a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC.
The outward presentation of this virus is most interesting. We just went through a pandemic that was silent, invisible and on the whole similar symptoms to other illnesses - it’s funny to think Monkeypox will be a pandemic of vanity as well as monkeypox.
I don’t understand how HN has become this cesspool of nonsense. It is a news. The virus is spreading. What this has to do with US or China? WTF with you guys.