I’m probably a bit more concerned about monkeypox than you are, mainly because it has an alarmingly long incubation period (up to 14 days) and then a punishingly long infectious period (3-4 weeks). That’s a lot of time to infect a lot of people in a lot of places. Plus it seems like it’s pretty hardy on surfaces. In places like NYC, monkeypox + covid could easily overwhelm public health systems.
The public health messaging is awful, and you couldn’t think of a better way to create distrust and homophobia.
As with Covid, the clunky system for prioritizing who gets vaccinated “first” is transparently stupid. The idea that any male with a good internet connection isn’t going to set up an alert to monitor changes to a website and just get a jab regardless of their sexual proclivities is just plain laughable. You might as well auction off doses to the highest bidder.
What’s needed is a “virtual” line. Let everyone go ahead and schedule their shot. Ask for a modest non-refundable copay. There are three possible contingencies to consider:
Someone with a higher priority comes along and wants your spot, more than 48 hours before your appointment. Then you automatically get moved or rescheduled and possibly offered a different vaccine you’re due for anyway.
Out of stock. Offer a different vaccine. Reschedule
Given that AFAIK there’s been virtually no cases (1%?) among people who hadn’t had sexual relations it seems like it transmits really ineffectively via non-sexual means. Why would it suddenly start infecting lots people in other ways, like via surfaces?
Thing is....our public health infrastructure is pretty well buggered at this point, and we don’t have the resources to do adequate contact tracing. So is it spreading beyond sexual networks? Can’t be sure, but it also seems like that’s the only place we seem to be looking.
I’m probably a bit more concerned about monkeypox than you are, mainly because it has an alarmingly long incubation period (up to 14 days) and then a punishingly long infectious period (3-4 weeks).
So with doubling every 10.5 days, that would seem to mean a high R0 - what’s your estimate? And really because some people are still being cautious about COVID, the true R0 (with normal behavior) would be even higher than what is measured now.
I’m probably a bit more concerned about monkeypox than you are, mainly because it has an alarmingly long incubation period (up to 14 days) and then a punishingly long infectious period (3-4 weeks). That’s a lot of time to infect a lot of people in a lot of places. Plus it seems like it’s pretty hardy on surfaces. In places like NYC, monkeypox + covid could easily overwhelm public health systems.
The public health messaging is awful, and you couldn’t think of a better way to create distrust and homophobia.
As with Covid, the clunky system for prioritizing who gets vaccinated “first” is transparently stupid. The idea that any male with a good internet connection isn’t going to set up an alert to monitor changes to a website and just get a jab regardless of their sexual proclivities is just plain laughable. You might as well auction off doses to the highest bidder.
What’s needed is a “virtual” line. Let everyone go ahead and schedule their shot. Ask for a modest non-refundable copay. There are three possible contingencies to consider:
Someone with a higher priority comes along and wants your spot, more than 48 hours before your appointment. Then you automatically get moved or rescheduled and possibly offered a different vaccine you’re due for anyway.
Out of stock. Offer a different vaccine. Reschedule
No show—retain the deposit. Jab anyone
Given that AFAIK there’s been virtually no cases (1%?) among people who hadn’t had sexual relations it seems like it transmits really ineffectively via non-sexual means. Why would it suddenly start infecting lots people in other ways, like via surfaces?
Thing is....our public health infrastructure is pretty well buggered at this point, and we don’t have the resources to do adequate contact tracing. So is it spreading beyond sexual networks? Can’t be sure, but it also seems like that’s the only place we seem to be looking.
So with doubling every 10.5 days, that would seem to mean a high R0 - what’s your estimate? And really because some people are still being cautious about COVID, the true R0 (with normal behavior) would be even higher than what is measured now.