The bad taste of better days

[sovay]

I just wish to submit it is unreasonable to have to deal with the outbreak of a rare disease in the middle of an ongoing pandemic of a novel virus which far too many people are treating with pure denial because they got bored with it, thanks. "One expert told Reuters the recent outbreak of monkeypox could be due to increased travel after COVID restrictions dropped." Wheeee.

Comments

[dewline]

"Could be"?

...yeah. I think we need another lockdown. The fascists are going to scream that we're evil for wanting it, but then...who cares what they're inevitably going to scream anyway to justify the crimes they're working up to against the rest of us humans anyway?

[flemmings]

I've read that those immunised against smallpox have immunity to monkey pox. May be time to break the vaccines out again.

[sovay]

May be time to break the vaccines out again.

The same shot affords protection for both, and I think so, too.

[choco_frosh]

Aren't all the smallpox vaccines kept in a locked lab in Atlanta?
[Looks it up] Oh, okay, that IS the thing that was developed for Monkey Pox.

(Also, Monkey Pox sounds for all the world like a ridiculous made up disease from The Secret of Monkey Island, or something.)

[sovay]

(Also, Monkey Pox sounds for all the world like a ridiculous made up disease from The Secret of Monkey Island, or something.)

According to NPR, we should more accurately be calling it "rodentpox," except that's a mouthful and I bet people would start confusing it with bubonic plague.

[radiantfracture]

Mousepox sounded too cute and also possibly like some sort of subscription service

[vass]

If only we could cancel the subscription.

[dewline]

"Confusing" or "conflating"...

[dewline]

Yeah. Seems like a good idea.

[selkie]

Who checked for highly cursed artifacts last? Was it the dude we found in the mummy case? Did he submit his report before the compensation and protective scarab was sent to his family?

[sovay]

Was it the dude we found in the mummy case? Did he submit his report before the compensation and protective scarab was sent to his family?

He's cool! Magical papyri in triplicate all present and correct. I'm worried about the outstanding lead sarcophagus under Notre Dame.

[kore]

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/a-mysterious-sarcophagus-discovered-beneath-notre-dame-will-soon-be-opened-1234625466/

Uh oh

[choco_frosh]

I REALLY hope this turns out to be an isolated case, and that this becomes the equivalent of the squirrels with Bubonic Plague in 2020.

[sovay]

I REALLY hope this turns out to be an isolated case, and that this becomes the equivalent of the squirrels with Bubonic Plague in 2020.

I forgot that even happened. 2020, man.

(Agreed.)

[redbird]

It's not an isolated case -- I think they have reports from six countries so far, and at least some of the cases in Quebec seem to be connected to the report from Massachusetts* -- but I really hope they get it under control quickly.

*Western Mass, so not near me and sovay, which is less comfort than it might be; one of my partners lives in Montreal.

[sovay]

I think they have reports from six countries so far

It's up to suspected cases in ten countries last I saw. I haven't double-checked the number of confirmed. Nothing seems to be isolated these days. Thanks, science deniers and conspiracy theorists!

and at least some of the cases in Quebec seem to be connected to the report from Massachusetts

I just saw that. I don't appreciate it. I know people in Montreal, too.

*hugs* for your partner.

[minoanmiss]

*quiet meeping*

[asakiyume]

Near to me, wheee! Currently hospitalized in Baystate in Springfield, seems like.

I don't think this will spread widely in the general public, but it's still not fun to have it popping up here and there.

[gwynnega]

I really miss the murder hornets.

[sovay]

I really miss the murder hornets.

The Overton window for nostalgia has gotten really weird.

[sovay]

I really miss the murder hornets.

How do you feel about jumping worms?

[gwynnega]

I would prefer the jumping worms to be lethargic instead of "extremely active."

[kathmandu]

I am still bemused that it's monkeypox. I was expecting bird flu to be the next big thing: there keep being reports of new, virulent, highly spread-able bird flu in different parts of the world, and it's not even the same strain every time. I just hoped the bird flu would hold off for another year or two until we got to a better Covid situation.

But no, monkeypox. This is not fair.

This unit of 2020 2022 2020 is defective and I would like to exchange it for a new one a unit of equivalent value a refund.

[sovay]

But no, monkeypox. This is not fair.

This would be a lovely time for someone to develop a fast, safe, effective mRNA vaccine for Orthopoxvirus, I tell you what.

This unit of 2020 2022 2020 is defective and I would like to exchange it for a new one a unit of equivalent value a refund.

Amen. Contained bobcat. Would not buy again.

[mrissa]

Er, but yes bird flu. It's really bad here [in Minnesota]. I am very worried about the owls who roost in our backyard, and egg prices are through the roof because they've had to slaughter so many infected chickens.

[asakiyume]

We've been hearing about bird flu here (W Massachusetts)--not human cases, but in bird populations.

[rachelmanija]

I'm really curious if people will take monkeypox more seriously if it gets widespread enough that they get to see horrifying sores and blisters. It's been something I've wondered about for the entire pandemic.

[sovay]

I'm really curious if people will take monkeypox more seriously if it gets widespread enough that they get to see horrifying sores and blisters.

I don't know! I would have thought the thing where COVID-19 caused thrombophilia to the point where you could see the fatal blood clots swarming and blooming on the MRI in real time was body horror sufficient to be taken seriously and that happened in the first months of 2020 and there were all the ventilators and the medical comas and the mortality rate and long COVID and and and and people still behave like it's a cold with fringe benefits. At some level I am not convinced that a high probability of coming out looking like the prime leper of Molokaʻi would scare people enough to act as a deterrent. People want to do what they want to do and if there are consequences, it's always someone else's fault.

(Did I already inflict my rheumatic fever spiel on you? It boils down to an extra layer of frustration with the failure or refusal to recognize how a mild case of COVID can classically fuck up a body for life when we have had for centuries a well-known disease that gives you a miserable couple of weeks from which you recover because it's actually quite hard to die of strep throat and then it turns out that somewhere in the process your antibodies turned on your internal organs and in consequence you now have a dicky heart and might end up with chorea. Like, I understand that facts have nothing to do with people's behavior around this pandemic, one's response has become a signifier of political identity and a casualty of culture war, but it really is not as though the delayed reaction is an unknown facet of illness which no one has ever had to consider before. And I'm just pulling an example that I happen to know about. I'm sure it's not alone.)

It's been something I've wondered about for the entire pandemic.

Legit. I still hope you won't mind if we don't have to find out with monkeypox. I could deal with not living in the worst timeline for once.

[selkie]

You have me as the COVID Example and Nicole as WHY YES, IMPOVERISHED/UNTREATED PEOPLE STILL GET MILIARY SCARLET FEVER AND NOW THEIR RESTING HEART RATE IS 107. I think we'll just skip monkeypox and bird flu, keyn ayin hora.

[sovay]

You have me as the COVID Example and Nicole as WHY YES, IMPOVERISHED/UNTREATED PEOPLE STILL GET MILIARY SCARLET FEVER AND NOW THEIR RESTING HEART RATE IS 107.

I remember that! Cases in point.

(I think the four-month sinus infection which fucked up my body for life lasted too long to qualify for this conversation.)

[kore]

we have had for centuries a well-known disease that gives you a miserable couple of weeks from which you recover

And it's not like there were decades of people brushed off with "yuppie flu" who were suffering post-infection sequelae that were never taken seriously! Nooo this is all Brand New Information OMG

[sovay]

And it's not like there were decades of people brushed off with "yuppie flu" who were suffering post-infection sequelae that were never taken seriously!

I'd managed to forget it was called that. Why do people suck.

[vass]

Entirely unreasonable; I would like to second your motion.

[sovay]

Entirely unreasonable; I would like to second your motion.

Thank you; I hope it carries.

[ckd]

I did not want the main benefits of my increased age to be "eligible for a second COVID-19 booster" and "old enough that smallpox vaccination was still a thing when I was a child". Really. I would have been fine with AARP discounts.

[sovay]

I would have been fine with AARP discounts.

You probably win this thread, but I'm so sorry. Two weeks in Philadelphia.

[lauradi7dw]

Over the years I have been proud of my role in eradicating smallpox (by the small involuntary action of allowing my arm to be hit with a needle when I was five). Now I feel that those of us who were rewarded by being allowed to start school are being rewarded again at the other end of life. Maybe. I hope this leads to many younger people being vaccinated. I've worried for a long time that those few lab samples of smallpox would get loose. Clorox them, I say.

[ethelmay]

Unfortunately smallpox immunity may not be lifelong. It's decades, for sure, but past forty or fifty years, who knows.

[lauradi7dw]

The person at the health department who gave it to me cheerfully said "Now you never have to worry about it again," but even then people did worry. When it was learned (a dozen years earlier) that someone passing through town on a train was infected, the college my mother was attending had all the students re-done in a just-making-sure way.
My parents-in-law lived in Queens at the time of a re-vaccination push in NYC. i wonder if they remember it
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/10/5/03-0973_article

[lauradi7dw]

"Aging population." I feel like I'm aging a lot more rapidly than I was in 2008, but still kind of reassuring
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610468/

[sovay]

I feel like I'm aging a lot more rapidly than I was in 2008, but still kind of reassuring

I appreciate this article; I've sent it on to my parents.

[kenjari]

Your Local Epidemiologist has a great, and fairly reassuring, post about monkeypox.
One of the big, useful takeaways from the post is that monkeypox is not a novel virus, so we already have a vaccine, treatment protocols, and really good handle on transmission and how the disease works.
I'm already masking indoors, and I'm going to go back to more frequent handwashing.

[sovay]

Your Local Epidemiologist has a great, and fairly reassuring, post about monkeypox.

I appreciate that link! Much of it was information I had seen from other sources, but not all of it and not all compiled in the same place by a person taking all of it into account in their analysis.

I have never really changed my protocols around other people, so I guess I'll just keep them up.

[kore]

I know I got All The Vaccines when I was a kid, despite my parents being Christian Scientists, but the records got lost about fifty moves ago and it seems they stopped inoculating babies against smallpox right around when I was born. :-/

One doctor said something in a news report that absolutely chilled me -- that he thought he'd see people masking up and getting vaxxed and taking precautions if they saw a loved one or friend horribly die of covid. He just said, "I thought that would do it, but I was wrong," in total despair.

[ethelmay]

I was thinking I ought to have gotten it as I was born a decade or so before it was eradicated, but I think by then they weren't giving it to babies, only older children, maybe teens, I forget, so by the time I was at the usual age it was no longer routine. I should ask my older siblings how old they were when they got it.

[ethelmay]

(I may very well be completely wrong about the age thing, so don't quote me.)

[lauradi7dw]

It was given to people who were five when I was a kid (in an area that had no public kindergarten) so that immunity would kick in before registering for first grade. We got the polio sugar cubes at the elementary school a few years later (whole families came for that, not just the students).

[ethelmay]

It might have been a booster that my siblings got later rather than the first shot. My impression was that they were older than five. But you know how anecdotal family info can get distorted.