Progress! Yesterday, CNBC ran a story headlined, \u201cMonkeypox Outbreak Is Primarily Spreading Through Sex, WHO Officials Say.\u201d The sub-headline notes that \u201cThe most recent surge in cases appears to have been spread among men who have sex with other men.\u201d<\/p>\n
I told you the euphemism machine would be at its highest setting. Why can\u2019t they just say \u201cgay men?\u201d Why do we need this tortuous language \u201cmen who have sex with other men?\u201d Don\u2019t tell me, I don\u2019t need to know. It was a rhetorical question.<\/p>\n
But they haven\u2019t given up the fear, I mean public health campaign. The story explained that \u201cWHO officials \u2026 emphasiz[ed] that ANYONE can contract monkeypox.\u201d The gist is that they think the transmission is from close physical contact with open body sores rather than something particular to the kinds of sexual contact between gay men. So if hetero people also join up in \u201csexual networking\u201d \u2014 whatever that is \u2014 and have sex with random people that have open monkeypox sores, the hetero people could catch it, too.<\/p>\n
The fear porn continued as the article gloomily predicted, \u201cmonkeypox can kill as many as 1 in 10 people who contract the disease.\u201d Well. We haven\u2019t seen that yet, or anything like that kind of fatality rate. They\u2019re just guessing, or hoping, or something. The old African figures they are referring to involve the very worst cases in third-world people who waited a long time to seek treatment.<\/p>\n
But at least they\u2019re acknowledging how the disease is really spreading. That is good news. Late last night, CNBC ran another article headlined \u201cCDC Officials Sound Alarm for Gay and Bisexual Men as Monkeypox Spreads in Community.\u201d That\u2019s even closer to reality than the first article. The evening article includes the same silly warnings as the earlier article, but the headline says what it needed to say.<\/p>\n
Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb apparently said, \u201cthere is a possibility now this has gotten into the community [and] if in fact it\u2019s more pervasive than what we\u2019re measuring right now, that becomes hard to snuff out.\u201d Hard to snuff out?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m just a lawyer, not a public health expert, and I don\u2019t know all the ins-and-outs of sexual networking, but here is a suggestion. Maybe \u2014 just stick with me for a minute \u2014 maybe if people stop having sex with other people they don\u2019t know and aren\u2019t married to for a while? Could that help? Take a year if they have to. Maybe THAT could \u201csnuff it out?\u201d<\/p>\n
Remember all the stuff about \u201cdo it for the community,\u201d and \u201cif it saves just one life,\u201d and \u201cdon\u2019t kill grandma?\u201d How about a tiny abstential sacrifice for grandma and the community, gay people? Will we hear those kinds of suggestions this time, do you think?<\/p>\n
Somehow I doubt it. Somehow I think this is going to come down to them telling us ALL to take smallpox vaccines. Or, maybe I\u2019m just being paranoid. It\u2019s so hard to tell the difference these days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Progress! Yesterday, CNBC ran a story headlined, \u201cMonkeypox Outbreak Is Primarily Spreading Through Sex, WHO Officials Say.\u201d The sub-headline notes that \u201cThe most recent surge in cases appears to have been spread among men who have sex with other men.\u201d … Continue reading