Pestilence or: How I Learned to Worry Constantly and Live with COVID

[theBlind]

Or if you like, if you are the sixth carriage in a train being run on a methed-out rentboy, and one of the earlier carriages is dripping Monkey Pox, then you are likely to get it.

It's all the fault of the 9€ ticket, obviously.

[Nordstern]

Anal is just the icing on the cake.

Don't ever type this combination of letters ever again

Anal is just the cherry on top.

[Nordstern]

[Hel OWeen]

As a programmer, I find that funny:

https://twitter.com/PR0GRAMMERHUM0R/...08199473999878

[Grendelfreak]

Finally got Covid this week. 2.5 days of chills and fever, major coughing, runny / blocked nose and not being able to sleep followed another 3 days (so far) of general tiredness and a mild cough. Not the worst cold I've had (have a lot of colds) but considering i'm an obese diabetic i'm glad those three vaccine shots did something.

Meanwhile my unvaccinated housemate became symptomatic yesterday and is coughing a lot. She has a really mild case back in January when the borders opened so we'll see how she goes this time.

[Cosmin]

Somehow offtopic. But actually not really.

This is fine.

[Maximillian]

COVID announced today that it has tested positive for Joe Biden. When asked how it was feeling it stated that it was feeling better than that President Joe Biden guy and that it was off to sniff a young girl's hair.

[Sacul]

COVID announced today that it has tested positive for Joe Biden. When asked how it was feeling it stated that it was feeling better than that President Joe Biden guy and that it was off to sniff a young girl's hair.

[Maximillian]

And Monkey Pox has just been declared a Global Emergency as cases explode.

[Duckslayer]

Of 1076 cases of monkeypox in the uk so far, 1033 are in men, and the UKHSA said the majority of cases continue to be reported in men who are gay, bisexual or have sex with men.

WTF??

I personally don't understand this drive to push monkepox as an STD that affects mostly sexual minorities as there can be a lot of other groups exposed and vulnerable to this. May be miscommunication but fml the WHO should keep their mouth shut until they have actually proper data instead of releasing knee jerk communiques.

So you're saying you wouldn't prioritise early available vaccinations going to men who have sex with men? Gay sex workers etc?

Sure, anyone can catch it, but right now what is actually happening? 95% male people who have had anal sex. Lets deal with realities before you worry too much about redoing the morale panic of the AIDs epidemic.

[Maximillian]

With HIV and now Monkey Pox it is obvious that monkeys really hate gay men.

[Cosmin]

Of 1076 cases of monkeypox in the uk so far, 1033 are in men, and the UKHSA said the majority of cases continue to be reported in men who are gay, bisexual or have sex with men.

WTF??

I personally don't understand this drive to push monkepox as an STD that affects mostly sexual minorities as there can be a lot of other groups exposed and vulnerable to this. May be miscommunication but fml the WHO should keep their mouth shut until they have actually proper data instead of releasing knee jerk communiques.

So you're saying you wouldn't prioritise early available vaccinations going to men who have sex with men? Gay sex workers etc?

Sure, anyone can catch it, but right now what is actually happening? 95% male people who have had anal sex. Lets deal with realities before you worry too much about redoing the morale panic of the AIDs epidemic.

Stop it. There are footnotes from the CDC that contradict the statement that it is affecting mostly male people who have had anal sex. It states clearly that the vaccine is recommended for children and adults at increased risk for meningococcal disease during an outbreak (with or without HIV, depending on serogroups).

The point is that EVERYfuckingBODY has a risk of getting it, cases are not exploding simply because there are gay men around having anal sex, but children got it as well. It's like with COVID all over again - oh, it's not airborne (LOL), oh, it's just the chineses who get it (LOL) and God will protect us because only the infidels get it and other similar crap. Just. Stop.

Yes, we can do priority vaccinations as per risk assessment. Not my job and not your job to do so. Just stop with the "gay men mostly" because shit like this is getting us blindsided - not to mention the whole discrimination just waiting to happen. As somebody well put it this framing as an STD is negligent at best and what it will do is increase the homophobia (remember the AIDS crisis?) and it could even lead to allegations of abuse when children in their care get it.

And no, I wouldn't deny it to people at risk. Read that slowly. Not your job, not my job to ascertain who's at risk, there are guidelines for that and CDC is doing a good job.


Here's also some science:

- transmission:

Monkeypox spreads in different ways. The virus can spread from person-to-person through:

- direct contact with the infectious rash, scabs, or body fluids
- respiratory secretions during prolonged, face-to-face contact, or during intimate physical contact, such as kissing, cuddling, or sex
- touching items (such as clothing or linens) that previously touched the infectious rash or body fluids
- pregnant people can spread the virus to their fetus through the placenta

See? Not an STD only.

Please. Carry on.

[tulip]

No, but if 90% of your reported new cases are in one demographic (as it was on the UK to start with) then you're fucking retarded if you don't target that demographic for vaccination first.

You're getting hung up on whether it's an STD or not. HIV is an STD, but you can also catch it without sex. Blood to blood transmission for example, doesn't mean it's not an STD because you can catch it sharing needles.

Monkeypox is a skin to skin contact spreading disease but if most transmissions occur during sex then yes, it's behaviour is like that of an STD. Doesn't mean you can only get it like that, just that at the moment lots of people are getting it like that.

Setting aside state funded medicine to be targeted at the gay community because there is a much higher incidence isn't oppressive or homophobic like the dark days of AIDS being a gay people's problem, quite the opposite. It's society prioritising those most at risk of catching a disease regardless of their sexual orientation and state funding preventative medicine.

[Duckslayer]

No, but if 90% of your reported new cases are in one demographic (as it was on the UK to start with) then you're fucking retarded if you don't target that demographic for vaccination first.

You're getting hung up on whether it's an STD or not. HIV is an STD, but you can also catch it without sex. Blood to blood transmission for example, doesn't mean it's not an STD because you can catch it sharing needles.

Monkeypox is a skin to skin contact spreading disease but if most transmissions occur during sex then yes, it's behaviour is like that of an STD. Doesn't mean you can only get it like that, just that at the moment lots of people are getting it like that.

Setting aside state funded medicine to be targeted at the gay community because there is a much higher incidence isn't oppressive or homophobic like the dark days of AIDS being a gay people's problem, quite the opposite. It's society prioritising those most at risk of catching a disease regardless of their sexual orientation and state funding preventative medicine.

This basically

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2207323

"Overall, 98% of the persons with infection were gay or bisexual men"
"The suspected means of monkeypox virus transmission as reported by the clinician was sexual close contact in 95% of the persons."



From the UKs most recent data
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...cal-briefing-4

"A high proportion of England cases were London residents (74%, 1,549 of 2,103 with location information). For confirmed cases in the UK, where gender information was available, 2,079 (99.3%) were male and 15 were female. The median age of confirmed cases in the UK was 37 years (interquartile range 31 to 44)...

Table 3. Selected epidemiological metrics from enhanced surveillance questionnaires in confirmed monkeypox cases in England as of 19 July 2022

N=576, some metrics have slightly smaller denominators due to missing values
Metric N (%)
Gay, bisexual, or men who have sex with men* 549 (96.5%) "

[Nordstern]

COVID announced today that it has tested positive for Joe Manchin and Lisa Murkowski. When asked how it was feeling it mumbled something about respecting bipartisanship before voting down another House bill addressing climate change and wandering off to count fossil fuel royalties.

[Maximillian]

Targeting most-at-risk groups was how they eliminated Small Pox. It was quickly realised that vaccinating everyone was an impossibility - I think the projections were enough people would be vaccinated by around 2025 to stop the spread at 1970s vaccination rates - so instead they focused on outbreaks and most-at-risk groups to limit the chances Small Pox had of spreading. In agricultural terms it is called ringfencing where you surround an area with a pest you are trying to control with a zone it cannot cross.

It is also the fact that people need to modify their behaviour until at risk communities are vaccinated. If people are going to continue with behaviour that is spreading Monkey Pox then they are limiting the effectiveness of control efforts. This isn't like COVID where you can walk through the droplets left by an infected person minutes before and get infected, it requires direct personal contact.

[Duckslayer]

Targeting most-at-risk groups was how they eliminated Small Pox. It was quickly realised that vaccinating everyone was an impossibility - I think the projections were enough people would be vaccinated by around 2025 to stop the spread at 1970s vaccination rates - so instead they focused on outbreaks and most-at-risk groups to limit the chances Small Pox had of spreading. In agricultural terms it is called ringfencing where you surround an area with a pest you are trying to control with a zone it cannot cross.

It is also the fact that people need to modify their behaviour until at risk communities are vaccinated. If people are going to continue with behaviour that is spreading Monkey Pox then they are limiting the effectiveness of control efforts. This isn't like COVID where you can walk through the droplets left by an infected person minutes before and get infected, it requires direct personal contact.

topkek if they use that terminology this time round

[Maximillian]

Fence your ring or the Monley Pox gets in???

[Duckslayer]

Fence your ring or the Monley Pox gets in???

Operation Ringfence is go

[Cosmin]

No, but if 90% of your reported new cases are in one demographic (as it was on the UK to start with) then you're fucking retarded if you don't target that demographic for vaccination first.

Yes, you would be retarded to not target that demographic for vaccination first, I never really argued with that point. What I was arguing against is propagating the idea that it's an STD. People are dumb enough as it is without giving them additional reasons to be.

You're getting hung up on whether it's an STD or not. HIV is an STD, but you can also catch it without sex. Blood to blood transmission for example, doesn't mean it's not an STD because you can catch it sharing needles.

HIV is an STD in certain cases (some say most cases), yes, however its classification is being a bloodborne disease primarily (like hep B and C, which you can also acquire via unprotected sex). At the end of the say it's a classification. Problem with putting monke pox into the STD group affecting primarily homosexual men is that you are risking heterosexual people feel more secure, whereas there is a high risk (AGAIN) that it will transmit skin to skin and precautions are necessary, precautions which will be ignored by the population at large because "we're not gays".

Monkeypox is a skin to skin contact spreading disease but if most transmissions occur during sex then yes, it's behaviour is like that of an STD. Doesn't mean you can only get it like that, just that at the moment lots of people are getting it like that.

Reminder from the beginning of COVID when everybody said it is not airborne. Remember?

Setting aside state funded medicine to be targeted at the gay community because there is a much higher incidence isn't oppressive or homophobic like the dark days of AIDS being a gay people's problem, quite the opposite. It's society prioritising those most at risk of catching a disease regardless of their sexual orientation and state funding preventative medicine.

Right, society prioritising. You do live on the same planet as I am, right? <3 Imagine I actually work with people and the vast majority are not concerned about monke pox because "it's gays only, right?". Again, this is not discussing it here on FHC or in other bubbles where being gay is a normally accepted thing, this is about 7 billion people+.

Also I'd like to remind you that there still is an HIV pandemic roaring in the world, one that hasn't made the news in quite some time because it's not really "interesting" enough to generate clicks. Just saying.