Monkeypox seems a lot easier to avoid than coronavirus. Monkeypox is much less contagious than covid-19. Coronavirus spreads through the air, simply through being in the same enclosed space as an infected person for a few minutes—a coworker in an office, a fellow meatpacker on the line at Smithfield, other kids or teachers at school, fellow worshippers in the pews at church. Avoiding those activities while we waited for coronavirus vaccines put a serious crimp in our daily and economic lives.
For the most part, quashing monkeypox seems to require simply boinking less and knowing whom you’re boinking:
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 98 percent of the monkeypox cases detected since the outbreaks emerged in May have been among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. He called for those at risk to take steps to protect themselves.
“That means making safe choices for yourself and others, for men who have sex with men,” Tedros said. “This includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners.”
Infectious individuals should isolate and avoid gatherings involving close, physical contact, while people should get contact details for any new sexual partners in case they need to follow up later, the WHO chief said [“WHO Chief Advises Men to Reduce Number of Sexual Partners to Avoid Monkeypox,” AP via PBS, 2022.07.27].
The CDC agrees: if you gotta do it (and, seriously, you don’t gotta do it, but if that ship has sailed…), do it yourself… scrub up when you’re done… and again, give up anonymous sex for a while:
If you or your partner have (or think you might have) monkeypox and you decide to have sex, consider the following to reduce the chance of spreading the virus:
- Have virtual sex with no in-person contact.
- Masturbate together at a distance of at least 6 feet, without touching each other and without touching any rash.
- Consider having sex with your clothes on or covering areas where rash is present, reducing as much skin-to-skin contact as possible. If the rash is confined to the genitals or anus, condoms may help; however, condoms alone are likely not enough to prevent monkeypox.
- Avoid kissing.
- Remember to wash your hands, fetish gear, sex toys and any fabrics (bedding, towels, clothing) after having sex. Learn more about infection control.
- Having multiple or anonymous sex partners may increase your chances of exposure to monkeypox. Limiting your number of sex partners may reduce the possibility of exposure.
- Avoid touching the rash. Touching the rash can spread it to other parts of the body and may delay healing [CDC, “Monkeypox: Safer Sex & Social Gatherings,” updated 2022.07.29].
The hardest item on the CDC’s list should be “Don’t touch it!” That’s just like with chickenpox: it’s gonna itch, but don’t scratch it!
And for Pete’s sake, don’t touch anyone else’s rash! Such is the advice from Dr. Céline Gounder on Twitter and on NPR’s 1A yesterday:
Let’s say you don’t have monkeypox, but you’re worried about getting it. How can you protect yourself?
Avoid close, skin-to-skin contact with people who have a rash that looks like monkeypox.
Do not touch the rash or scabs of a person with monkeypox.
Do not kiss, hug, cuddle, or have sex with someone with monkeypox.
Avoid contact with objects & materials that a person with monkeypox has used.
Do not share eating utensils, cups, or toothbrushes with a person with monkeypox.
Do not handle or touch the bedding, towels, or clothing of a person with monkeypox.
Wash your hands often with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, especially before eating or touching your face, after you use the bathroom, and after sex/other intimate contact. (This is always a good idea.)
…How to have safer sex:
- Talk to your partner about any recent illness and skin lesions. [CAH: I’ll note that if you’re not comfortable talking about illnesses and skin lesions with the person you want to have sex with, that’s a sign you’re not ready to have sex—i.e., intimately relate—with that person.]
- …Stick with one sexual partner until you’ve ogtten the Jynneos vaccine.
- Avoid anonymous partners until you’ve gotten the Jynneos vaccine.
- Put a pause on having sex until you’ve gotten the Jynneos vaccine [Dr. Céline Gounder, Twitter thread, 2022.07.31].
Hmmm… no anonymous sex, no sex with people with lesions, stick with one partner—these are not hard rules to follow, and without going into detail, I can attest that I’ve lived under these restrictions for over two decades with no apparent negative effect on my money or my mental health.
Monkeypox is a lot easier to beat than coronavirus. Preventing the spread of this new disease requires far less sacrifice of far less essential activities than the previous pandemic required.
Hmmm, Well at least it will probably mean people will be having less Stds and Abortions, just saying.
Yeah loti – lots of gay dudes lining up for abortions these days…
Loti- he pretty much only feels good doing that to people with names like yours, not names like Fred…you know;)
Cory makes names blue if the commenter includes a website when commenting, as a free link. Very generous.
This is without exception the most insensitive, selfish, and inbred post I’ve read on this blog. And, may I add, ask your wife if she’s having or has ever had intimate relations with lesbians who are also bisexual at times. That should help your hetero relationship.
what in the world are you talking about, p.h.?
If you’re old enough, remember the first five years of the AIDS epidemic. This response to a legitimate group of American’s medical emergency is so similar it makes me want to puke. To reprint such callous and unempathetic statements is not worthy of a liberal rag. Reads like something Trump’s supporters were spewing about Covid.
P. Aitch
AIDS was first identified in the US in 1981 with symptoms such as Kaposi’s sarcoma, and no one had any idea of its cause. It wasn’t until 1984 that HIV was determined to have a viral cause (although Peter Duesberg and others refused to believe AIDS was caused by a virus and many yet do). When the cause was determined, people were able to take preventative measures to mitigate its transmission.
And these preventative and practical measures within a promiscuous population have nothing to do with a vaccine as even today there is no vaccine against human immunodeficiency virus. (Barebacking within the homosexual community nonetheless remains a cult phenomenon that flies in the face of common- sense health measures).
We knew monkeypox is a viral infection and have known it for a long time. We also have a vaccine (however in short supply) against monkeypox. Quite different than HIV.
Cory brings to our attention practical measures that can be taken to prevent transmission of monkeypox.
Well, sure, I remember the AIDS epidemic. It struck first in the gay community, at least in the US, and there was a lot of gay bashing, assuming it was a gay disease. I don’t think that’s the case with monkeypox, though. We know it is an equal opportunity disease. With AIDS, we didn’t know much about how it spread at first, there was no cure or ways to control it. I don’t look at the suggestions above as unempathetic. I look at them as reasonable public health measures, just like wearing a mask with Covid.
“It wasn’t until 1984 that HIV was determined to have a viral cause,,.”
I would better have written “It wasn’t until 1984 that AIDS was determined to have a viral cause…”
In any case, although we have vaccines for both monkeypox and coronovirus, but not for HIV, that in no way argues that other practical measures to slow transmission are not as well in order.
PPS
“…that in no way argues that other practical measures to slow transmission are not in order”—particularly in those populations in which the disease is the most rampant, and in the case of monkeypox and AIDs, that is the homosexual population.
PPPS
“…in those populations in which the disease is the most rampant…”. and the most devastating .
Do any of you believe that gay men don’t know everything that was written in this post? People who have near zero risk telling people at risk what they’re doing wrong is selfish and supremacist. Preaching to the LBGTQ community about who and when they should have sex is damn sure none of your business. It may make you straight men feel better but only because you can’t control yourselves from trying to fix a problem that’s none of your business to intervene in or give advice in. It’s exactly what straight men do continually. You told gay men how to act during the AIDS crisis, you’re telling women how to manage their bodies, and you’re telling those at risk from monkeypox how you think they should behave. Just stop and think before you act like you’re helping when you’re really just appeasing your own lack of understanding. You sound like a bunch of overlording Catholic priests. You know next to nothing about how gay men think.
This is a white man’s attack on gay men, seriously? A supremacist attack lead by CDC director Rochelle P. Walensky (not a man) and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (not white)?
You project well. Theater major?
That’s what you gleaned from my assessment? No wonder you couldn’t make it as an attorney. Business major, here.
P. Aitch
“Do any of you believe that gay men don’t know everything…”
You sell gays and every other population short if you think they know it all and have nothing to learn.
Right, Dave.
Business major does makes sense. A sales pitch labeled as analysis fits.
The good news is monkeypox is much less contagious and much less likely to be deadly than Covid. There are also vaccines and treatments originally developed for smallpox that work on monkeypox.
While monkeypox probably will not kill you, it can be excruciating enough that you want to avoid it nonetheless: It can cause pain that some patients compare to glass shards scraping against the skin. And although the virus is afflicting mostly gay and bisexual men now, that could change if it continues to spread unchecked. Nothing about the virus limits its spread to only men who have sex with men (not all of whom identify as gay or bisexual).
– Monkeypox is not typically fatal, but it still can cause painful disease and permanent scarring. The risk is not high for most people now, but that could change if the virus continues to spread. And the people who are at serious risk can take steps to stay safe and prevent the outbreak from getting worse.
– Public health officials are trying to make vaccines, treatments and testing more available. President Biden yesterday named a national monkeypox response coordinator to oversee those efforts.
– But progress has been slow. As monkeypox spread in May and June, 300,000 vaccine doses owned by the U.S. sat in Denmark.
– Officials are also trying to raise public awareness of monkeypox, given that it is a new virus to most Americans.
– Their main goal now is to avoid a wider outbreak that makes monkeypox an endemic virus that spreads regularly across the U.S., like influenza. If monkeypox keeps spreading unchecked, it could eventually spill over to a broader population than gay and bisexual men, said Dr. Céline Gounder, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
– “It’s still containable,” she added. “But it is going to require more aggressive screening, testing and vaccination. – NYT
PAitch, don’t let the social justice impulse cloud your reading of my text. I don’t bash gays. I say what the experts and the evidence are saying: monkeypox is spreading primarily through sex, so to prevent the spread of monkeypox, we all need to be careful with our sexual activity.
“Don’t have anonymous sex” isn’t just good epidemiological advice for avoiding herpes, syphilis, AIDS, coronavirus, and monkeypox; it’s good advice for general physical, mental, and social health.
If we can reduce our trips to the grocery store and restaurants and concerts for a few months to combat coronavirus, we can all have less anonymous sex for a few months to control monkeypox.
In short, quit screwing around.
Cory lists some public health information that has been getting attention lately, and p. aitch is like DON’T YOU THINK WE KNOW THIS ALREADY!? and then that same p. aitch proceeds to list basically the same public health information as a comment like it’s news haha smooth
Agreed to disagree.
I generally don’t agree to disagree. I agree to maintain, uphold, and promote my correct position so others will change their incorrect position.
Having anonymous sex with multiple partners is connected with much of the spread of monkeypox. People can get monkeypox through other forms of contact, but right now, cutting back on anonymous sex with multiple partners would reduce the spread of monkeypox. I have seen no grounds for disagreeing with those three sentences and that public health advice.
I don’t think it is a coincidence that when Trump was insulting China, a virus breaks out that seems to swiftly kill Asians and others, while not so much white guys (he even calls it the China virus!)
Is it a coincidence too that after ticking off Trump because of his funny impersonations on SNL, Alec Baldwin is handed a pistol with loaded live rounds on his movie set and shoots dead his own friends?
His ex wife had accused Trump of rape and she falls down stairs and dies of blunt force trauma to her abdomen. How does the soft belly area get a beating while falling down stairs? It is the bony parts’ job to take the beating in falls and the belly doesn’t stick out far enough unless you are doing a backwards lawn chair.
Then there was Epstein’s death right before he was about to oust Trump for being his rape buddy for decades.
And when Zelenskyy wouldn’t go along with sabotaging President Biden or Hilary Clinton…. Zelenskyy’s country was invaded by Trump’s homie and Hilary became a scary meme.
There are more examples of the deadly tantrums from grown, powerful weirdos. If you hurt Don’s feelings or intimidate him, you could end up dead or worse, ask Alec Baldwin and Zelenskyy.
P. Aitch- I don’t think Monkeypox nor AIDS were natural. I don’t have evidence other than a recording of scientists chuckling about how they developed AIDS. It is sinister but I do believe some homosexual hating men (possibly Trump’s sort) with lots of money and power had the virus tailored to suit their agenda: to stop the encroachment of socially accepted, gorgeous, successful, honorable, thoughtful, articulate, likable, strong, powerful gay men advancing in our world. Period. They annihilated them previously with the AIDS epidemic and saw their fear making a comeback and had to make an even uglier example of what they (we don’t know who exactly they are but can speculate) perceive as sinners. Can’t get any more evil than stigmatizing a colorful, contributing niche of our population. I might sound psycho or dumb to most, but they don’t matter that much to whether or not I spout my opinions. It is what I do- come up with ideas and original thought. And that is scary. I understood where you were coming from, P. Aitch. I think this terrible pox is just an effort to push a certain group that threatens another, insecure group into shame and the outskirts of everyday culture in America, again.
mammal, that was a wonderful journey you just took us on… like the silly boat in wonka’s factory… where does it stop? nobody knows!
OK, Cory. I tried to be noncombative. I don’t disagree with the raw advice from the experts. I disagree with your ability to convince gay men to do what you advise. Have you any proof that your judgmental, bullying tactics have worked previously? Telling people what to do, be that advice right or wrong, is rarely effective. Putting yourself in the shoes of the vulnerable and gentle persuasion is much more effective. Maybe that’s not in your toolbox and maybe you’re too old to change? Maybe your daily negativity has finally caught up with your softer sense? How’s your personal life been affected by the new Cory? Everything good at home, amigo? Hmmm …?
@All Mammal: I won’t argue with your assertion. Were such evidence presented it wouldn’t surprise me.
“insensitive, selfish, and inbred”—if that’s noncombative, I’d hate to be around when you come spoiling for a fight.
How is it improperly judgmental to say that anonymous sex with multiple partners increases one’s risk of catching and spreading disease? How is it judgmental or bullying to say that if we want to control monkeypox, we should all avoid anonymous sex with multiple partners?
It requires more empathy to say to a vulnerable, gentle person, “Hey, that thing you’re doing makes you more vulnerable to disease. You improve your chances of avoiding illness if you avoid doing that thing for a while, at least until we get this outbreak under control” than to say, “Never mind. Do whatever you want. If you get sick, deal with it.”
And the truth is the truth. We have an obligation tell each other the truth. “Monkeypox is easily spread through sex” is one of the most objective truths we can tell, akin to basic epidemiological facts that we have been saying about masks, vaccines, and coronavirus. If we can’t tell these objective facts, and if people will use hurt feelings as their excuse not to listen to and act on these plain facts, then all is lost.
(And may we characterize your attempt to imply negative things about my personal life as judgmental or bullying? Or does it suffice to say that endnig comment is just a red herring to distract from the valid public health message offered by multiple experts?)
In that spirit of focusing on facts: All Mammal, let’s not run down the coincidence and conspiracy holes. Let’s stick with evidence, not imagination.
I only listed facts. People who Trump doesn’t like wind up dead or harmed. I have ideas about why my ideas bother guys. I know. It’s scary stuff, like I said. My ideas are so offensive hey. Have fun, boys.
Mark Anderson- I hope your deal is going well. I hoped to hear from you by now. Take care.
haha i love it when people think their basic or nonsensical opinions are edgy and offensive
A PSA , melodrama, comedy, farce, and back to a PSA. Good work by all. (Standing Ovation)
As said previously, “Agreed to disagree.” L.W.I.Y (last word is yours)
Here in New Mexico monkey pox isn’t a big deal but over two hundred people are in hospitals with the Trump virus and infection rates are still high.
The Obama Administration cut funding to the lab in Wuhan after teams from Australia, the US and China discovered this novel coronavirus strain in 2014 but it took Donald Trump to weaponize it. In past years the Trump Organization has used the federal courts to punish tribal nations who built casinos Trump said were competition but his White House slow-walked resources to reservations effectively deploying COVID-19 as a biological weapon in Native America. Trump killed the White House Tribal Nations Summit because he loathes Native Americans.
It’s called ethnic cleansing even genocide elsewhere but in Trump’s America it’s called MAGA.
“Keep it in your pants”—good advice for avoiding monkeypox; possibly applicable to avoiding off-track blog comments.
Wait a minute—another implication of P. Aitch’s complaint just hit me.
P doubts my ability to convince gay men to do what I advise. I’m actually advising everyone, gay or straight, to avoid anonymous sex with multiple partners to reduce the spread of monkeypox, but P singles out gay men, so, o.k.
What if for “gay men” we substitute “South Dakota voters”? What if for “monkeypox” we substitute “Trumpism”, “insurrection”, “fundagelical hypocrisy”, “nervous apartheidism”, or any other term with which we may capture the maladies plaguing our culture.
The whole purpose of this blog is to speak truths to direct South Dakotans and other patriots toward changes in behavior that would make our state and our nation stronger and healthier. I carry out that purpose that with pretty much every post. Many of you readers join in to do the same in your comments. But P, I, and most of you can recognizes that our persistent efforts (judgmental? bullying?) haven’t worked much. South Dakotans still vote for Trump, Noem, Novstrups, and other stupid people and stupid policies. They marginalize me as an angry, irrational, radical enemy.
So what are we to do? Instead of laying out facts and making blunt points, are we to accommodate the Trump/Noem cult? Are we to put ourselves in the shoes of the ignorant and hateful, assure them that we understand why they hate Indians and women and gay kids and vegetarians and bicyclists and what-not, and tell them there’s no shame at all in ignoring facts and letting the darkness in our souls guide us toward self-destructive social behavior? Are we to sit quietly (like South Dakota teachers and shopkeepers) that, after some indeterminate period of silent countenancing of sociopathy, that the sociopaths around us will see us as close enough to their side that they might listen when we suggest, gently, “Hey, instead of beating up five faggots tonight, how about we just beat up four?”
P’s thesis here, generalized to broader questions of blogging and society, seems to be, “Don’t tell people facts they don’t want to hear. You’ll come across as judgmental and bullying.” I still contest the bullying charge, but an objective reader can easily read nearly everything I’ve blogged over the past 17 years as judgmental, because of course I’m judging. I’m trying to discern right and wrong, for myself and my community. If we are not to judge, then how we ever to speak or reason for ourselves, let alone propose, discuss, and decide good courses of action with our friends and neighbors?
It’s a short walk for me to put myself in the shoes of the vulnerable. But if there is some other route to the “gentle persuasion” that P recommends, someone else needs to write that blog to effect the social change that eludes me. P likely rightly suspects that the method he has in mind is not in my toolbox. I should just quit all this ineffective writing and yield the floor to someone takes P’s approach to journalism and social change. Or maybe I should write more sports stories so I sound like one of the guys and then every month or so slip in one careful bit of social commentary to lure my readers into the light.
Or maybe I should remind P that he is being at least as judgmental about my (in his judgment) ineffective writing as I am about the behaviors that research shows are contributing to a significant public health risk, remind him that he is telling me what not to do with at least as much passion as I’m telling people at risk of monkeypox what to do to keep themselves and their community healthy, and then get back to my regularly scheduled programming.
You all know what I’m going to do. Anyone seeking an alternative approach to promoting public health and positive social change is welcome to propose concrete and morally consistent means of doing so.
P. Aitch
“Were such evidence presented it wouldn’t surprise me,” regarding crazy theories for which there is no evidence.
Not surprisingly it wouldn’t surprise you.
And, by extension, the fact that no such evidence has materialized would also fail to surprise you no less as much.
I’m other words, you are captive to your expectations and not to objective evidence in its truest sense.
What is so crazy about suggesting a virus to be human tailored? It is crazy to not consider a person like Trump capable to buy off a guy to create a germ to run off people he doesn’t want around. Remember the U S government wasn’t being kind by giving the Natives smallpox blankies. Find your own proof on that. Open your mind while you’re at it too.
The short pud only commenting on the fairer gender to make himself feel badass reminds me of Stillwell Angel from A League of Their Own. Always saying, “You’re gonna lose. You’re gonna lose.” Stillwell Angel, have another chocolate bar.
Act like your clubhouse is breeched and want it back to your preferred sausage fest so you can go back to feeling like the smartest while playing belly swords. You can smell testosteronies emitting every time a female leaves a comment and ryan has to be right there to say his version of a masculine quip. You’re not funny, you’re not Grudz, you’re a brown noser and you’re only pissy to women. No couth, man. Save it for your incel chat group, pud.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7364747/
Evidence showing Trump’s rhetoric blaming Asians for his ‘China virus’ caused racism aimed at Asians.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/donald-trump-alec-baldwin-rust-shooting-maybe-he-loaded-it-1234869406/amp/
Trump quoted saying Balwin’s accident wasn’t coincidence.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/15/nyregion/ivana-trump-cause-of-death.html
COD of Ivana Trump.
https://www.businessinsider.com/women-accused-trump-sexual-misconduct-list-2017-12?amp
Ivana Trump did in fact accuse Trump of rape. She later backed off. She was found dead at bottom of stairs. Falls down stairs can kill from the stairs impacting the stomach? Valid question because it seems unlikely. Be skeptical if you cannot accept the validity of my suspicion.
Epstein and Trump had parties with underaged girls. They were the only men in attendance. Look it up if you believe Trump. They shared a private plane. Or jet if you’re a pompous jerk.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump–Ukraine_scandal
There was even a whole committee agreeing Trump did exactly what I suggested. I didn’t pull any of my assertions out of nowhere. Compare Trump to Noem. The list could go on and on for both of their discretions. Don’t blame my imagination for these clowns. They come up with it-not me.
Mr. Kurtz provided some of his research, whether or not he meant to back up my accusation that Trump weaponized a virus aimed at people he doesn’t like.
https://khn.org/morning-breakout/dr00026171/
Brilliant minds also state there is strong evidence to conclude AIDS was created for warfare. Promoting a questioning attitude isn’t crazy or wrong.
Look up your own evidence whether or not Trump is fond of the LGBTQ community. I hope I have provided enough literature to defend my post, which was my way of defending P. Aitch and Loti from a chud who only posts snarky remarks about other peoples’ comments instead of ever coming up with his own ideas. I will always stand up to a spineless jellyfish bully, who more than likely already ran off Leslie and every other woman who no longer share input because of pud. Not a good tradeoff.
i thought the commenter on here named leslie was a man. who ran leslie off? i hope he or she comes back.
mammal, for someone who fancies themselves edgy and offensive, you sure have pretty thin skin. you are new here, or at least your name is new here. maybe you used to post under another name, i dunno. check my comment history and prove to yourself how ignorant you are. i am unaware of most commenters’ genders, and i don’t care what gender anybody is. when people say things that i find to be stupid, i say so. i think you say a lot of stupid things, but rest assured it has nothing to do with your gender – your words and actions provide plenty of material to make fun of, so i have no need or desire to pick on anybody about (or because of) their immutable characteristics. some of my fondest memories on this wonderful blog over the years are calling out the idiocy of several guys who used to / still post. boy, they were/are frickin morons. but again, their gender is irrelevant. it was their stupidity and their confidence despite their stupidity that made them such desirable targets for my attention. they also fancied themselves edgy and offensive, and they thought it made them cool. i like to help correct folks with similar misunderstandings.
Anyone who believes the United Snakes isn’t capable of mass murder with biological weapons even before the Trail of Tears is delusional. European invaders imported Africans because tribes had no immunity to malaria let alone smallpox.
That “Pocahontas” thing Donald Trump does to Senator Elizabeth Warren doesn’t just betray his hatred for women; it’s a tell that he loathes American Indians no matter how much or how little Native blood a person has.
Kristi Noem is his protégé and don’t ever forget that.
Stillwell Angel-your self assessment really shows. It is also the verbatim definition for troll. You judging whether what chicks say is stupid or not is like Rodney Dangerfield judging a beauty pageant. You’re not qualified to check my tires, pud. We don’t need a pissy, mean white man lurking around with nothing but his incel angst to project. Find a Unite the Right rally to get that hate out of your system.
Peace+pot+microdot(:
all mammal, why is my race or gender important? are you one of those special people who cries about racism and sexism while being proudly racist and sexist? very smooth. seems like you are more ideologically similar to the right wing losers than I am, but of course, your projection is not surprising.
rodney dangerfield was a genius; you certainly won’t bother me with any comparison to him. however, this blog isn’t a beauty contest. you aren’t judged here for your looks, but for your words and actions. If you want people to kiss your feet for being female, you’re in the wrong place.
And incel? my wife would disagree, but it’s unlikely you’ll get a chance to ask her – she works during the day, and at night we are home with our kids so she doesn’t have much time for hanging out in parking lots.
Monkeypox appears to have no racial or sexual preference. Anyone engaging in anonymous polygamous sex seems to be at increased risk of monkeypox, not to mention other better known diseases.
There is no evidence that monkeypox or covid-19 was engineered.