Monkeypox mutating, get vaccinated ASAP.
Smallpox evolved to be deadly to human, and monkeypox has the potential to do this. Also, if monkeypox starts spreading to the general population you want to avoid the stampede to get the vaccine.
This is a recent article form Nature magazine, one of the two most authoritative science publications in the English-speaking world.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03171-z
There is a concern that monkeypox virus might becoming a specialist in infecting people. Currently the monkeypox virus genetic makeup is so it can disarm a broad population of people and the genetic changes that are occuring seem to be related to that. Discussing the changes seen in the monkeypox mutations to the evolution of smallpox (variola) the author article states:
This underlies one hypothesis for why variola became adept at infecting humans: over the span of thousands of years, an earlier version of the virus might have lost genes from its termini that had enabled it to infect a broad range of animal species, and it eventually became a specialist at infecting humans.
Before smallpox was eradicated, it killed about three out of ten people who were infected with it. This is one of the possibilities when a virus becomes a “specialist at infecting humans.”
They are concerned that this is happening to monkeypox since the mutations appear to be related to the regions where the virus has an ability to infect a broad range of animals and as the article states:
Some scientists worry that a similar situation could arise with monkeypox, which is currently more of a generalist; it can infect many mammals, including several rodent species and humans.
The article discusses on the possible impact on treatments for persons with monkeypox. So far, the monkeypox virus hasn’t evolved resistance to tecovirimar but, they are also seeing that the virus is evolving and as the article states:
Although the PCR test returned a positive result, the authors warn that these types of mutation could eventually render it ineffective.
Nothing in the article about the impact on vaccine effectiveness. Likely they just don’t know. Even if the vaccine is less effective with the strains, you chance of getting it will still be reduced, and if you do get it, it will likely reduce the severity. Don’t let the issue of monkeypox evolving hold you back from getting vaccinated.
The article concludes that the good news is that the number of sequenced monkeypox genomes has increased from 100 to 2,000 so science is collecting data on monkeypox. Science is continuing with understanding monkeypox.
The link below is to an earlier article in Science magazine, the publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. At this point they were talking about the possibility of evolution, the Nature magazine reviewed above is confirming that evolution is underway.
https://www.science.org/content/article/will-monkeypox-virus-become-more-dangerous
In the Science magazine the article explains how smallpox evolved from a mild disease to a deadly disease and how this could happen with monkeypox.
A few years ago, researchers scoured the remains of 1867 people who lived between 30,000 and 150 years ago for genetic traces of variola, the virus that causes smallpox. In the teeth and bones of four Northern Europeans from the Viking era, they found enough DNA to reconstruct entire variola genomes. The sequenced viruses weren’t direct ancestors of the feared variola strain that was eradicated in the second half of the 20th century. But they may hold a clue to how smallpox became so deadly.
Over the span of 350 years, the Viking virus lost several genes, the researchers reported in a 2020 paper in Science. Researchers had seen this pattern before. The modern smallpox virus also lost several genes in the recent past, although as a result of different mutations. Seeing it twice “suggests that the loss of the genes was not an accident,” says poxvirologist Antonio Alcamí of the Severo Ochoa Center of Molecular Biology in Madrid. “It was selected for.” Alcamí thinks the losses may have made variola more virulent, resulting in its 30% mortality rate. In the past, smallpox may have been a “widespread mild disease,” he wrote in a commentary accompanying the paper.
From the Nature magazine article, you can see that this possibly has already started.
Avoiding Disaster
We don’t know for a fact that the monkepox is evolving to be more deadly or better to be able to infect people. However, monkeypox is headed towards extinction, as the MSM population either gets vaccinated or has gotten it, unless it evolves to infect the general population.
Right now the general public is complacent because it is infecting only MSM, but once it becomes generally known that it is infecting straight people and it is infecting the general public, there will be a real panic and a major demand for vaccination. It doesn’t have to be more deadly and kill people, monkeypox without being fatal is horrible enough to scare people. If it does become more deadly people will be even more scared.
Police officers, doctors, hospital workers, and other critical groups will demand priority. The supply of the vaccine could very likely still be limited and if you haven’t gotten vaccinated already, you might not get vaccinated at all.
If you are a monogamous Gay couple, you might feel that you don’t need to get vaccinated, but if it starts spreading to the general public in non-sexual ways, being monogamous won’t protect you. You are MSM, the program now is to vaccinate MSM, they expect to be vaccinating only MSM now, figure out a way to get a vaccination, you can do it if you focus.
As monkeypox spreads among the general population it is likely that the opposition to getting vaccines will collapse and people who have refused vaccination in the past will suddenly want Covid vaccination, flu vaccination, and whatever else type of vaccination that they have previously refused. It might well be that in the rush of ex-anti-vaxxers to get vaccines there could be shortages and waiting lines for vaccines. You might not be able to get the vaccination you have previously neglected to get.
Get the vaccinations you need to get now. You likely won’t be wanting to get 2 or 3 vaccinations at a time. So it isn’t you can catchup in getting vaccinations in a day. Get started now.
I don’t know if getting the flu and monkeypox at the same time is fatal or just really horrible, but if you are vaccinated you won’t be at risk of finding out.
At this time with monkeypox it only affects a small segment of the general population and even so there is a shortage of vaccine and it it isn’t generally available even to the MSM population. To get the vaccine in most places you have to meet certain criteria.
If monkeypox spreads to the general population, the need, demand for vaccine could vastly exceed the supply and there could be a runaway pandemic.
Summary
Developments in the evolution of monkeypox show that it might become a specialist in infecting humans and possibly more deadly and more like small pox was before it was eradicated. In that case there would be a rush to get vaccinated for monkeypox and possible a rush to get vaccinated in general.
Those gays who aren’t vaccinated for monkeypox, covid, and other diseases might well find themselves not being able to get vaccinated.
So at this time.
Get vaccinated for monkeypox as soon as you feasibly can get vaccinated. Find a way.
Get vaccinated for everything else in a hurry.
