A troubling replay of the coronavirus pandemic.
An informed guide to the pandemic, with the latest developments and expert advice about prevention and treatment. |
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 | | The New York Times |
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Losing the fight against monkeypox |
The monkeypox outbreak should have been relatively easy to snuff out. The virus does not spread efficiently except through intimate contact, and tests and vaccines were at hand before the current outbreak. |
But my colleague Apoorva Mandavilli reports that the U.S. has fallen short at every turn, whether in rolling out mass testing or ramping up vaccine supplies. It has been a troubling replay of the coronavirus pandemic, which raises more doubts about the nation's ability to fight future threats to public health. |
"How many more times do we have to go through this?" asked Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who first warned of monkeypox outbreaks more than a decade ago. "We've been hitting the snooze button on emerging diseases for decades. The alarm is going off, and it's time to wake up." |
The monkeypox outbreak "reveals the failure in the U.S. to take public health seriously," said Zain Rizvi, who studies access to medicines at the advocacy group Public Citizen. "Do we ever run out of fighter jets?" |
The global monkeypox toll has surpassed 8,100 cases, mostly men who have sex with men, and about as many potential cases are under investigation. Many of those patients cannot identify the source of their infections, suggesting that there is significant community transmission. |
There are already at least 700 cases in the U.S. There probably will be many more infections before the outbreak can be controlled — if at this point it can be controlled at all. |
What else we're following |
While getting some form of Covid might be inevitable, I am trying to hold it off as long as possible. Statistically I am at risk for symptoms of long Covid. My life has changed drastically and I am learning to cope. No more foreign travel has been the most difficult part. I continue to mask whenever I go into stores, shop off hours and I avoid large outdoor gatherings. I have made five safe cross country road trips by car to see family. My young grandchildren are tested with home tests before seeing me. I see friends but mostly in outdoor settings. My life is not unhappy but my life is different. — Darlene Adams, Las Cruces, N.M. |
Let us know how you're dealing with the pandemic. Send us a response here, and we may feature it in an upcoming newsletter. |
| Thanks for reading. Jonathan Wolfe will be back soon. — Adam |
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