Can’t wait for us to try nothing to stop this and then be all out of options with a disease that has an up to 10% mortality rate in certain strains :covid-cool:

Good news: smallpox vax is ~85% effective against monkeypox, monkeypox tends to be less transmissible than other poxes

Bad news: young people tend to no longer be vaccinated for smallpox, human to human transmission of monkeypox is rare which means we are likely dealing with a new strain (of all cases in Britain, only one has recently been to west Africa but no other patients have or have been in contact with the patient who travelled)

  • LeninWeave [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Bad news: young people tend to no longer be vaccinated for smallpox

    That's an understatement. It's been eradicated for decades, almost no-one gets vaccinated for smallpox.

    • TankieTanuki [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Yeah, since the disease is no longer extant the harms of the vaccine outweigh its benefits*. The smallpox vaccine was the first vaccine invented by humanity and as a result it's relatively primitive and dangerous.

      https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-most-dangerous-vaccine/

      *if monkeypox becomes prevalent that might change.

      • LeninWeave [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Today, smallpox is a potential weapon of mass destruction that could be wielded against the U.S. by enemies like Iraq and al Qaeda.

        :wtf-am-i-reading:

        • TankieTanuki [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          First published on December 11, 2002

          This was written during the height of the war on terror and not long after the CIA and Ft. Detrick unknown terrorists sent anthrax to US congresspeople who were against the Patriot Act.

          • invo_rt [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            The whole anthrax thing is unbelievably sus. The anthrax was a particular kind of weaponized form that could've only come from a US bio """defense""" lab ala Detrick and it ended up in the mail of key politicians and media figures.

            :sus-deep:

        • invo_rt [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          There's so much forgotten history about Bush Jr and the smallpox vaccine. Robbie Martin of Media Roots Radio did a long run down of the entire administration push for the vaccine and it's pretty wild.