With COVID wave declining, I'm not going to panic about monkeypox

No, I'm not going to panic over monkeypox.

We're hearing a lot about monkeypox these days, just as the latest COVID surge seems to be settling down.

Coincidence?

All I know is that my Twitter feed has been serving up one monkeypox alert or update after another. Cable news stations have also been giving a lot of airtime to this new public health concern.

It's just that once you scratch the surface, monkeypox doesn't seem like that much of a concern at all. But after two-plus years of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are going to be hyper-alert to any kind of virus or transmissible disease.

And the media, including Facebook and Twitter, will feed on that. That's why we're seeing all those headlines containing the words "monkeypox" and "COVID" and "pandemic."

That's the news and social media business these days. Just like how they bombard us with watches and warnings every time there's any amount of snow, rain or stormy weather in the forecast. Something potentially dangerous keeps people coming back for updates.

But from everything that the experts are saying, it sounds unlikely that monkeypox is going to be the next COVID-style global nightmare.

While the World Health Organization said that it's too soon to say if this uptick in monkeypox cases will lead to an actual pandemic, the risk to the general public remains very low, CNBC reported.

The WHO says that people should not mistake monkeypox for COVID, that they're two very different viruses.

Monkeypox is transmitted through lesions, blood or the bodily fluids of an infected person or through clothing or bedding that they've touched.

Close contact with an infected person or material is needed for the virus to spread. Monkeypox symptoms like rashes and lesions are easy to spot. That makes monkeypox patients easy to quarantine.

So that all makes it quite different from COVID, which can spread through the air and which can be spread by infected but asymptomatic persons.

Monkeypox is endemic in parts of Africa but experts are now trying to figure out why it's popped up in other countries, including the United States.

Health officials have pointed the finger at raves and festivals held in Europe where people had sex. Sexual contact with an infected person seems to have amplified the transmission, the Associated Press reported. Many of the known cases in Europe involve men having sex with other men, the AP said.

So even though the COVID situation has become more manageable and people can once again go to raves and other large gatherings, they should still be careful about who they have sex with.

Dr. Hans Kluge, head of WHO's Europe division, said that people should limit their number of sexual partners. He said that while COVID-like restrictions won't be needed, some action will be required or the monkeypox outbreak may not be containable.

Avoid people with the obvious symptoms. Limit your indiscriminate sexual activity at festivals and raves. I think I've got it, doctor. No need for anyone to even think about shutting the world down.

There's even vaccine protection already available, with medical officials saying that if you've gotten the smallpox vaccine, you should be protected against monkeypox as well, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is also a preventative monkeypox vaccine.

Which is not to say that everybody needs to get a monkeypox vaccine. Unless you're planning on having sex at a rave or a festival. Then you should probably think about it. Let's not start any new mandates.

So let's follow the science: We know how monkeypox is spread. We know what the symptoms are. We know what the risky behaviors are.

Let's not panic.