Monkeypox doubles in two weeks in U.S., with more than 2,300 cases, is now in all but seven states

15
500

Alaska is one of just seven states where monkeypox has not been diagnosed since May, when the outbreak started in the United States.

The painful, disfiguring, and pustular disease has spread quickly through the gay male community of men having sex with multiple partners of men. Over the past two weeks, the case reports of monkeypox has doubled, and is considered to be underreported.

The CDC says 2,323 cases have been diagnosed, as of Tuesday. Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Mississippi, Maine, Vermont, and Alaska have not yet reported cases. 

California, with its large gay male community, has had 356 confirmed cases of monkeypox, the most of any state. A coalition of LGBT organizations there has written to the Biden Administration asking for more testing and vaccines, and are warning that California is at risk of becoming the global epicenter for the disease. The supply of vaccines for monkeypox are limited.

“We, at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, are fearful that the government’s history of not taking the necessary action to protect the LGBT community when facing a public health threat is repeating itself with the current Monkeypox response,” said Joe Hollendoner, CEO of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the nation’s largest LBGT advocacy group.

“It has been a mere nine weeks since the United Kingdom announced it had detected four cases of monkeypox, a virus endemic only in West and Central Africa. In that time, the number of cases has mushroomed to nearly 13,000 in over 60 countries throughout Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, new parts of Africa, South Asia, and Australia,” writes STATNews.com. “The growth in cases and the geographic spread has been rapid and relentless. Now, even as global health officials race to curb spread of the virus, most experts polled by STAT said they don’t believe it will be possible to contain it.”

“I think we missed that train at this point,” said Gary Kobinger, director of the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch and a member of an expert committee that advises the World Health Organization’s Emergencies Program.

Read STATNews’ report at this link.

Monkeypox has symptoms similar to smallpox, but it’s rarely fatal. It was discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research, the CDC says. The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970 on the African continent.

The current outbreak is moving through Europe and the United States mostly within the sexually active community; the disease’s pustules are painful for those having close intimate contact with someone who carries the virus.

15 COMMENTS

  1. And how is this news? Really? Its time to stop fear mongering and look at the real issues. Our government is under Chinese rule with a dementia ridden puppet president to start with!

  2. Revelations 16
    The seven bowls of God’s wrath.

    “The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.”

  3. Why is this such big news? There is a virus circulating that only affects gay men. If you’re a gay man, use caution with your sexual activity. Why scare the general population with this?

    • Jim – As in the past, it may start in the gay male community but moves over into the “tinder” community sooner or later, often beginning in the sex trades and then spreading from there. It’s good for people to begin to assess their risk tolerance. – sd

  4. I think what jumped out at me is this “… the Los Angeles LGBT Center, are fearful that the government’s history of not taking the necessary action to protect the LGBT community…” Hmmm… maybe if you stayed off of one another you’d stand a better chance of not contracting this RARE disease. Soon the screams of “HOMOPHOBIC BIGOTS!!” will rattle off the walls in Congress because the government didn’t do enough to protect them from themselves. Here comes Fauci and Pfizer all over again.

  5. Only a monkey mask can save us from this latest peril!
    Of course confinement to our cages might help.
    Or not.
    Polling places? DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!
    They must not open!
    You’ll be mailed a ballot.
    Those who lived at your address 20 years ago will be mailed a ballot.
    Cemeteries will be festooned with ballots just waiting to be marked by anyone and turned in.
    But be at rest. Our elections will be safe, secure and the outcome assured.
    Think of the anxiety that will save you – not having to worry over who (or what) will win!

    • The monkey mask might help if you’re prone to slipping your monkey into another man’s heinder.

      I do sometimes wonder though what the longterm ram-ifications are to making gay marriage legal. That would seem to carry with it the ability to make same sex partners eligible for whatever insurance bennies you may qualify for and that particular community is well known for introducing some freakishly expensive poxes, Do-gooder heteros that vote to approve will also be voting to pay more in health insurance premiums to offset whatever pox queers cook up next and if Mr. Constant is a group benchmark they likely have among them a thick layer of lying POS types inclined to game the system.

  6. As with any other identified health ‘crisis’ involving a mostly ‘targeted’ community, perhaps the individuals within that mostly ‘targeted’ community should, rather than relying upon the government to protect them, take the very simple steps needed to protect themselves from said ‘crisis’ based upon known behaviors that could possibly contribute unto said health ‘crisis’.

    You know, self-responsibility.

  7. For Pete’s sake seriously?? Of course the LGBT wants the government to help! I’m sorry these people deserve what they get for living the filthy lifestyle they choose to live!
    There are consequences to living like animals sleeping around.. It’s called disease. I want nothing to do with any of these people.

  8. Maybe it’s time for the majority of the Anchorage Assembly to go under lock down! And then maybe the Mayor would be able to get His work done without total interruptions.

Comments are closed.