COVID. Monkeypox. The old-fashioned flu. We’re living in a new era of overlapping viral outbreaks. But as frightening as these diseases might be, at least there are safe, effective and readily-available vaccines for each of them—even if the first COVID vaccines did take a year of frantic work. There’s at …
Read More »
It’s right there in the name: the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is supposed to prevent outbreaks of infectious diseases — or, failing that, control them. But the Atlanta-based CDC by its own admission screwed up the initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic back in early 2020. And …
Read More »
If you happened to be scrolling through Twitter last week, you may have noticed #MonkeypoxIsAirborn trending. The hashtag revealed a fierce debate over the transmissibility of monkeypox, and what measures the general public should be taking to protect themselves against an outbreak that on Thursday was declared a public health …
Read More »
Although John Oliver’s main story on his latest episode of Last Week Tonight was about monkeypox, he couldn’t help but begin with Alex Jones, the odious conspiracy theorist who Oliver very accurately described as “a man who boldly answers the question, ‘What if Grimace were a Proud Boy?’” Jones was …
Read More »
The Biden administration officially declared monkeypox a public health emergency. The announcement was made by Health Secretary Xavier Becerra during a briefing with the Department of Health and Services on Thursday, as The New York Times reports. “We’re prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this …
Read More »
On Fourth of July weekend, adult performer Silver Steele made the rounds at a few bars to celebrate the holiday with some friends. He went out dancing, where he and his friends “were all rubbing up on [one] another and hugging and kissing,” he says. The following weekend, he flew …
Read More »
There was an undetected monkeypox outbreak already underway in the United States before health officials in Europe and the U.S. sounded the alarm about the dangerous viral disease back in May.That’s a problem. For every day that a virus spreads unmonitored and unchecked, there’s greater risk of it finding a …
Read More »
A fresh outbreak of monkeypox in Europe and the United States in recent weeks isn’t just a threat to public health. It’s also a warning sign. More and more dangerous viruses, having evolved in animal populations, are jumping to the human population. Bird flu. MERS. SARS-CoV-1. And of course SARS-CoV-2, …
Read More »