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The first U.S. case of a more severe strain of mpox without any recent travel history has been identified in California.
Also preserved in our archive
Mpox spreads via intimate contact and aerosols. Another great reason to mask, since this shows that our surveillance of Mpox isn't doing a good enough job to detect what must be domestic spread.
with mpox taking off, y'all (especially mask blocs) should be calling pharmacies asking them to order in the vaccine & getting your friends to call in too most pharmacies will list it as an option but they don't have it in stock. Some have never even filled a single order for it, some don't even have the ability to order it despite it being a listed option. If you've got a car, help people with mobility limitations get vaccinated too I got mpox from a contaminated surface in 2022 and the "intractable pain" that was typical of it was severe enough to make me suicidal. It was excruciating. This being a different clade, people vaccinated or previously infected have some resistance but may be reinfected. It's both airborne & spread by fomites. Hypochlorous acid, bleach, & rubbing alcohol kill mpox, as does washing contaminated textiles in hot water (oxyclean helps kill it too).
Remember that this is happening bc the so-called west refused to give people in need the vaccine. COVID is breaking records, h5n1 is poised to become a pandemic & vaccines are being withheld for that. Work together to help people survive.
Wear a mask.
We now have local transmission of clade I mpox!! Welcome to the US, clade I mpox!!!! 🎉🍾🥳🇺🇸🦅
An NPR investigation found Louisiana health officials told staff to stop promoting vaccines for COVID, flu and mpox, holding flu shot events
Rosemary Westwood at NPR:
A group of high-level managers at the Louisiana Department of Health walked into a Nov. 14 meeting in Baton Rouge expecting to talk about outreach and community events. Instead, they were told by an assistant secretary in the department and another official that department leadership had a new policy: Advertising or otherwise promoting the COVID, influenza or mpox vaccines, an established practice there — and at most other public health entities in the U.S. — must stop. NPR has confirmed the policy was discussed at this meeting, and at two other meetings held within the department's Office of Public Health, on Oct. 3 and Nov. 21, through interviews with four employees at the Department of Health, which employs more than 6,500 people and is the state's largest agency.
According to the employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they fear losing their jobs or other forms of retaliation, the policy would be implemented quietly and would not be put in writing. Staffers were also told that it applies to every aspect of the health department's work: Employees could not send out press releases, give interviews, hold vaccine events, give presentations or create social media posts encouraging the public to get the vaccines. They also could not put up signs at the department's clinics that COVID, flu or mpox vaccines were available on site. The new policy in Louisiana was implemented as some politicians have promoted false information about vaccines and as President-elect Donald Trump seeks to have anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And some public health experts are concerned that if other states follow Louisiana, the U.S. could face rising levels of disease and further erosion of trust in the nation's public health infrastructure.
[...]
A blow to public health practice
Staff at Louisiana's health department fear the new policy undermines their efforts to protect the public, and violates the fundamental mission of public health: to prevent illness and disease by following the science.
[...]
Experts fear consequences of undermining trust in vaccine
Last year, 652 people in Louisiana died of COVID, including five children. Louisiana currently is tied with DC for the highest rate of flu in the U.S. In 2022 alone, flu killed 586 people in Louisiana. Every health department staff member, former staff member, public health official and vaccine expert contacted by NPR repeated the scientific consensus that vaccines are safe, effective, and essential for preventing illness, hospitalizations, and deaths.
[...]
Policy change follows new governor's election
Until becoming Louisiana governor in early 2024, Republican Jeff Landry served as the state's attorney general for eight years. During the pandemic, he criticized the state's COVID response and filed lawsuits over federal and state vaccine mandates. On Dec. 6, 2021, Attorney General Landry spoke at a state committee hearing against adding COVID to the childhood immunization schedule. At his side was Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who presented false claims about COVID vaccines. This year the Republican-controlled legislature passed five bills — all signed by Gov. Landry — and two resolutions aimed at loosening vaccine requirements, limiting the power of public health authorities and sowing doubt about vaccine safety.
Gov. Landry also appointed Dr. Ralph Abraham, a family medicine doctor, to be the state's surgeon general. That position co-leads the Department of Health, and is tasked with crafting health policy that is then carried out by the departmental co-leader, the secretary. [...] Abraham said masking, lockdowns and vaccination requirements "were practically ineffective," that COVID vaccine adverse effects have been "suppressed," that "we don't know" whether blood from people who've been vaccinated is safe for donation and that "we hope and pray" COVID vaccines don't increase the risk miscarriages.
[...]
A slippery slope to future disease outbreaks
Experts told NPR they feared a policy that undermines COVID, flu and mpox vaccinations could have a spillover effect, reducing public trust in vaccinations overall, including those given to children to prevent a host of dangerous and deadly illnesses. "I believe that we will see measles cases. I believe we will see whooping cough cases. I believe we will likely see meningitis outbreaks," said Hood. In the Nov. 14 meeting, a staff member asked whether the ban on promoting vaccines applied to children's immunizations, but the answer was noncommittal, according to an employee with knowledge of the meeting's details. "My understanding was it's not clear to what extent we might be able to promote childhood vaccinations," the staff member said. (The Louisiana Department of Health's statement to NPR said the changes in policy and messaging do not apply to childhood immunizations.) Nationally, vaccination rates for serious childhood diseases have been falling in recent years, including in Louisiana.
[...]
The rise of public health officials promoting misinformation
Louisiana isn't the only state where public health officials have recently announced controversial decisions and repeated false or discredited health theories. Florida's surgeon general has made false claims about COVID vaccines, undermined school vaccine mandates for the measles and said local officials should stop adding fluoride to water supplies.
The consequences of anti-vaxxer extremism and anti-public health sentiments being normalized by Republicans: Louisiana bans the state's Department of Health from promoting COVID, flu, or mpox vaccines.
thread on mpox (previously known as monkeypox) by a vaccine researcher.
key points:
mpox is not new & it is not like covid
smallpox vaccines are effective against mpox ("at least 86%")
"JYNNEOS (Imvanex, IMVAMUNE) is a non-replicating vaccine for smallpox that CAN BE USED SAFELY in immunocompromised individuals and individuals with skin conditions such as eczema against Mpox"
WHO declared public health emergency status due to surge in cases in & around the DRC (i'm assuming this spread of the disease is linked to the crisis)
"we also have some antiviral drugs (such as Tecovirimat) that can help treat those who are already infected. Vaccinia immune globulin (VIG) can be used against monkeypox"
you should be able to get the jynneos vaccine at your local pharmacy if you are concerned about exposure!
stay safe folks 🫡
Read CDC’s updated recommendations for people with #monkeypox. If you have monkeypox, isolate until your rash has fully healed. If you need to go out, cover your rash, wear a well-fitting mask, and avoid public transportation. Learn more:
Archived web material for CDC.gov is preserved on the CDC Archive Site
— CDC (@CDCgov) August 1, 2022
Why wear a well-fitting mask for mpox? Unless it's….
— Lazarus Long (@LazarusLong13) August 16, 2024
Im callin it now, mpox is gonna be handled even worse than sars because people are already twisted over public health measures and refuse to get vaccinated against anything else, why would this be different
