How bad is monkeypox, really?

We live in a time of disinformation conceived and issued by the Democrat party and the media.  The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now want to leverage their latest midterm virus into another round of pandemic fear porn.  Since you cannot trust the FDA or the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) or their spokespeople today, it might be a good time to review what the official research conducted for the military indicated before today’s liars at the CDC and the FDA get crazy again and mandate unwarranted and ineffective masks and lockdowns for monkeypox.

From the U.S. Army Field Manual FM 3-11.9, Title: POTENTIAL MILITARY CHEMICAL/BIOLOGICAL AGENTS AND COMPOUNDS, on page IV-2 is Table IV-1.  List of Potential BW Agents:

Viruses

Bacteria

 

Chikungunya virus

Bacillus anthracis (Anthrax)

 

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus

Brucella abortus (Brucellosis)

 

Dengue fever virus

Brucella melitensis (Brucellosis)

 

Eastern equine encephalitis virus

Brucella suis (Brucellosis)

 

Ebola virus

Chlamydia psittaci (Psittacosis)

 

Hantaan virus

Clostridium botulinum (Botulism)

 

Junin virus

Francisella tularensis (Tularemia)

 

Lassa virus

Burkholderia mallei, formerly Pseudomonas mallei

(Glanders)

 

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus

Burkholderia pseudomallei, formerly Pseudomonas pseudomallei (Melioidosis)

 

Machupo virus

 

 

Marburg virus

 

 

Monkeypox

 

 

Rift Valley Fever virus

Salmonella typhi (Typhoid Fever)

 

Tick-borne encephalitis virus

(Russian Spring-Summer encephalitis virus)

Shigella dysenteriae (Shigellosis)

Botulinum toxins

 

Variola virus

Vibrio cholerae (Cholera and other Vibrioses)

 

Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus

Yersinia pestis (Plague)

 

Western equine encephalitis virus

Ricin

 

Yellow fever virus

Saxitoxin

 

Shiga toxin

Toxins

 

Japanese encephalitis virus

 

 

Staphylococcus aureus toxins

 

Rickettsia

Tetrodotoxin

 

Coxiella burnetii (Q Fever)

Verotoxin

 

Bart quintana, formerly Rochalimaea quintana or Rickettsia quintana (Trench Fever)

Microcystin

Trichothecene mycotoxin (see Note)

 

Rickettsia prowasecki (Typhus Fever)

 

 

Rickettsia rickettsii (Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever)

 

 

On page 152 (or IV-19), directly from the FM, the specifics for Monkeypox are listed.

k. Monkeypox.

(1) Infectious Agent.  Monkeypox virus; it belongs to the genus orthopoxvirus, which includes the smallpox virus (variola), the virus used in the smallpox vaccine (vaccinia), and the cowpox virus.15

(2) Occurrence.  The rain forest countries of central and western Africa and the US.16

(3) Reservoir.  Studies suggest several species of squirrels and Gambian rats in Africa16 and pet prairie dogs in the US may be animal reservoirs.15  Other animals may be possible reservoirs.16  Rats, mice, and rabbits can get monkeypox.13

(4) Transmission.  Limited data on the transmission of monkeypox virus are available from studies conducted in Africa.  Person-to-person transmission is believed to occur primarily through direct contact and also by respiratory droplet spread.  Airborne transmission cannot be excluded, especially in patients presenting with cough.17

(5) Symptoms.  In humans, the symptoms are similar to those of smallpox, but usually milder.  The illness begins with fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, a general feeling of discomfort, and exhaustion.  A papular rash develops, often first on the face.  The lesions usually develop through several stages before crusting and falling off.  In Africa, the reported case-fatality rate is 10 percent.15

(6) Incubation period.  About 12 days.16

(7) Communicability.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests there is a relatively low risk of person-to-person transmission.17

8) Prevention.  Because the monkeypox virus is related to the virus that causes smallpox, the smallpox vaccine can protect people from getting monkeypox as well as smallpox.18

(9) Delivery.  The likely method of dissemination is an aerosol release.

References:

15CDC, Monkeypox, “Fact Sheet: Basic Information About Monkeypox,” 12 June 2003, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/monkeypox/factsheet.htm, 2 September 2003.

16Yvan J.F. Hutin (CDC), et. al., “Research: Outbreak of Human Monkeypox, Democratic Republic of Congo, 1996-1997,” Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vol. 7, No. 3, May-June 2001.

17CDC, Monkeypox, “Updated Interim Infection Control and Exposure Management Guidance in the Health-Care and Community Setting for Patients with possible Monkeypox Virus Infection,” 18 July 2003, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/monkeypox/infectioncontrol.htm, 2 September 2003.

18CDC, Monkeypox, “Fact Sheet: Smallpox Vaccine and Monkeypox,” 9 July 2003, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/monkeypox/smallpoxvaccine_mpox.htm, 2 September 2003.

If today’s reporting is accurate, monkeypox appears to be limited to gay men and those in close contact with gay men.  It is rarely fatal.  It is treatable with monkeypox and smallpox vaccines.  Regardless, Democrats, the media, and blue states will shift into fear porn overdrive.  The rest of America will ignore them.

(UPDATE: A physician wrote in with further information: "As per the treatment of Monkeypox, the CDC only recommends antivirals. Otherwise, you just treat symptoms. There are no therapeutic vaccines available to treat any human disease.")

Image: NIMESH DUSRA via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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