It’s 2022, so of course enough people are worried about an epidemic of Monkeypox that it feels like a necessary public service to do a post about Monkeypox. I didn’t get to it especially fast exactly because I am not all that concerned, but I’m not entirely
"The smallpox vaccine is 85% effective at stopping spread, but it uses live virus and leaves a scar."
This description sounds serious, but my scar is barely noticeable, in the axilla region -- I (born 1970) went to look for it after I read this sentence, and I was like, "Oh, yeah! Look at that!"
Moderna is apparently exploring monkeypox vaccination at a preclinical stage. I haven't done a deep dive on mechanisms but it does seem to be less simple than Covid to do an mRNA vaccine against due to some more complicated cell entry mechanisms, compared to the spike protein. Barriers look like they may be scientific rather than regulatory at this stage.
Reminder that in terms of vaccine development covid was close to out best case scenario.
I think you left out the myocarditis rate for the smallpox vaccination of ~1/2000 which is why indiscriminate vaccination came to an end when the disease was eradicated.
> Most cases in the outbreak are men who have sex with men, but that’s not true of cases in Africa.
Rephrase this as "[...] men who reported having sex with men, but that’s not true of cases in Africa.", and it suddenly makes a lot more sense.
Also, there's Outside View, which says that we're likely having a couple of proto-pandemics per year, and being just after Covid we're a lot more likely to pay attention to them.
Both arguments against panicking, but of course, being prepared definitely doesn't hurt. And totally agree with a sane civilization already doing challenge trials.
- If you were born before 1971 and went to an American public school, make sure they provide you with info about your immunization history, and provide that info to your health care provider, who can then update your info in the state or local immunization registry. The more data they have, the better.
- We need to start monitoring the spread of monkeypox in animal populations. It appears to be quite capable of establishing animal reservoirs in small furry mammals.
I agree with your assessment about the insanity of being afraid to do challenge trials. It's always seemed like a weird manufactured ethical dilemma. People take all sorts of life threatening gigs, *because they're well compensated* and there's no reason challenge trials can't be any different
I hate to be a debbie downer but can we just chill on giant sex conferences for a few months?
"The smallpox vaccine is 85% effective at stopping spread, but it uses live virus and leaves a scar."
This description sounds serious, but my scar is barely noticeable, in the axilla region -- I (born 1970) went to look for it after I read this sentence, and I was like, "Oh, yeah! Look at that!"
Moderna is apparently exploring monkeypox vaccination at a preclinical stage. I haven't done a deep dive on mechanisms but it does seem to be less simple than Covid to do an mRNA vaccine against due to some more complicated cell entry mechanisms, compared to the spike protein. Barriers look like they may be scientific rather than regulatory at this stage.
Reminder that in terms of vaccine development covid was close to out best case scenario.
I think you left out the myocarditis rate for the smallpox vaccination of ~1/2000 which is why indiscriminate vaccination came to an end when the disease was eradicated.
> Most cases in the outbreak are men who have sex with men, but that’s not true of cases in Africa.
Rephrase this as "[...] men who reported having sex with men, but that’s not true of cases in Africa.", and it suddenly makes a lot more sense.
Also, there's Outside View, which says that we're likely having a couple of proto-pandemics per year, and being just after Covid we're a lot more likely to pay attention to them.
Both arguments against panicking, but of course, being prepared definitely doesn't hurt. And totally agree with a sane civilization already doing challenge trials.
I'd like to add two more bullet points:
- If you were born before 1971 and went to an American public school, make sure they provide you with info about your immunization history, and provide that info to your health care provider, who can then update your info in the state or local immunization registry. The more data they have, the better.
- We need to start monitoring the spread of monkeypox in animal populations. It appears to be quite capable of establishing animal reservoirs in small furry mammals.
I agree with your assessment about the insanity of being afraid to do challenge trials. It's always seemed like a weird manufactured ethical dilemma. People take all sorts of life threatening gigs, *because they're well compensated* and there's no reason challenge trials can't be any different