A Monkeypox on Both Your Houses: Chapter 1 - Surely This Will Blow Over Soon

https://twitter.com/globalbiosec/status/1527055681433776129?s=21&t=52OYG8EUFnTMmpLZxoE1RQ

Chimpin’ ain’t easy.

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I’m expecting racist jokes about this being caused by having sex with black people. How long before some dumb racist starts trending on Twitter because of that?

I literally never heard of this before today

Knowing literally nothing about this except that Twitter thread, I wouldn’t be surprised if this ended up being taken more seriously than covid just because it’s visible and therefore harder to deny. But let’s please not test that theory

So the smallpox vaccine is like 85% effective against this, there’s been an outbreak in Nigeria since 2017, and there have been a handful of cases in the western world but no community transmission. Now there’s apparently community transmission in the UK, Portugal and Spain, and (unsubstantiated) speculation about the possibility of a new strain.

Meanwhile…

What are the odds that either Merck was trying to position itself for this possibility or the government contracted them to start producing smallpox vaccine to prepare for this, and the wrong person stumbled onto the wrong vial and it blew up in the news briefly?

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Please post this in the Origins of Monkeypox thread sir!

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Which Republican will be the first to propose limiting travel from Africa to the US?

Curiously, there seem to have been low-level monkeypox outbreaks every year since 2017, according to wiki.

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The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) has stockpiled enough smallpox vaccine to vaccinate every person in the United States. In a smallpox emergency, the SNS will coordinate with the Medical Countermeasures (MCM) coordinator or the preparedness office in the state or territorial health department. The MCM coordinator will allocate vaccine to local areas, depending upon the circumstances of the emergency.

Well that’s relatively comforting.

What’s the age range on who can get the vaccine. I’d look it up, but I imagine someone here already has.

Nobody right now, it appears. If an outbreak of smallpox or monkeypox starts, they’d go with a ring strategy and try to vaccinate the area of the outbreak. If that failed, they’d vaccinate everybody.

Well, I suppose everybody who wants it.

I was meaning to ask if kids can get it. And if there is a minimum age, what is it?

Jynneos, the newer one, is 18+. ACAM200, the older one (that leaves a scar) is 12 months+, but not recommended in nonemergent situations for anyone under 18.

You can be vaccinated after exposure, but it appears it needs to be within a few days.

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Thanks. That’s just what I was looking for.

Household attack rate for unvaccinated people has been proven to be in the 8-10% range historically. There’s anecdotal evidence of a 70% attack rate in Nigeria within the last few years, but the data isn’t solid.

Overall I’d say that’s encouraging. Especially if the smallpox vaccine is 85% effective. You’d reduce the household attack rate to like 1.5%.

The R0 is estimated at 0.3 to 1.0. I guess the major risk right now is that some sort of new strain has increased the R0 to > 1.0. If so, we’ve got a bit of a problem but we’ll be able to vaccinate our way out of it. At least those of us who take the vaccine. The rest, well, you know… That’s their problem.

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“Freeze-Dried Monkeypox” sounds like a line Beck’s Loser.

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