[acsinuk (OP)]

Most of the elder generation will remember having a cow pox scratch as a child. It was given to immune you from small pox which is a far more serious disease .   Attached is a Wikipedia article on cow pox.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowpox .
Why is there a rumour being spread by TV that monkey pox could be the start of some sort of national epidemic when it could just be a pharmaceutical promotion for extra sales of their vaccines now that Covids are no longer necessary?

[evan_au]

Monkeypox is in the same virus family as smallpox and cowpox, and the smallpox vaccine is effective at reducing the severity of monkeypox.

The conspiracy theorists are all over this "convenient" handover from COVID to Monkeypox - and the proposed WHO treaty to extend pandemic surveillance beyond influenza to include other diseases with pandemic potential (like COVID and other zoonotic diseases).

Monkeypox is less contagious than smallpox (and much less lethal - this monkeypox strain is more like COVID, at around 2% fatality).
- But it does infect the lungs
- There are signs from the 2003 US outbreak that it did spread through aerosols from prairie dogs to humans
- The pox blisters contain viable virus, so contact with skin or clothing can cause an infection
- Unlike COVID, people are symptomatic before they are infectious, so test, track and trace with quarantine should be much more effective than with COVID (and the tracing teams will be more familiar with the process than they were in the early days of COVID!).
- Numbers are still small, and tracing is working, so we don't need to put on the masks just yet...
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthopoxvirus

[Bored chemist]

" Could it be similar to cow pox and just a mild variant of small pox."
No.
That's why they call it by a different name.

Why is there a rumour being spread by TV

Because that's what news sellers do.
It makes money.

The real question is why are you spreading that silly idea here?

it could just be a pharmaceutical promotion for extra sales of their vaccines

There is no monkeypox vaccine.

The R value for covid was about 3. The R value for monkeypox is about 0.02
You can get outbreaks, but not a pandemic.

[Petrochemicals]

It is some sort of less worrying virus from the same family as the smallpox  virus, but as there has been a gap in the market for a pox virus and immunisation for smallpox is fading out.
Worrying thing about monkey pox is it varies between 1 and 10 percent lethality and mainly attacks the young.

I seem to remember some sort of illness doctor on this forum, he'd be more help.

[chris]

Monkeypox was documented decades ago; the name is misleading, because it's not actually an infection of monkeys; nor is chickenpox an infection of chickens, for that matter!

The natural host of this orthopoxvirus are rodents like rats, mice and squirrels. Periodically the agent jumps into bigger animals, including us and sometimes monkeys, and that's how it was detected decades ago and mislabelled as monkeypox.

But it is a highly evolved virus that is a close relative of vaccinia, cowpox and smallpox. Unsurprisingly, it produces similar symptoms in all of these, but because it is poorly evolved to infect humans, it tends to show limited spread and severity in us.

All viruses exploit opportunities afforded to them to spread. Something, or a range of factors - possibly declining global immunity against pox viruses in general - has provoked the present outbreak, which is probably fuelled by a superspreader event.

We anticipate more cases will be picked up, because we're on the lookout for it, but we don't anticipate widescale spread at the moment.

[Bored chemist]

I seem to remember some sort of illness doctor on this forum

The usual description is "medical".

[SeanB]

Wonder how effective the smallpox vaccines are after a few decades of being used, as I had the pressure injection at primary school, many years ago.  But will say the Covid vaccines are pretty effective, still here, despite having had it likely at least twice, but both times a negative test result, which is still possible with the quick tests. Last one was just like a moderate case of flu, while those who are antivax seem to be selecting themselves for Darwin awards, with a very high probability of winning one.

[evan_au]

some sort of illness doctor on this forum

In his day job, Chris (Smith) is a virologist; he has a lab with gene sequencing equipment.
- This lab was very active during the COVID pandemic
- I am sure activity will increase again if Monkeypox reaches as far as Cambridge!

See the answer from Chris, above.

[Petrochemicals]

Wonder how effective the smallpox vaccines are after a few decades of being used, as I had the pressure injection at primary school, many years ago.  But will say the Covid vaccines are pretty effective, still here, despite having had it likely at least twice, but both times a negative test result, which is still possible with the quick tests. Last one was just like a moderate case of flu, while those who are antivax seem to be selecting themselves for Darwin awards, with a very high probability of winning one.

Darwin requires natural selection to take place before reproduction. Darwinism has failed to stop hereditary early age breast cancer or heart failure.

some sort of illness doctor on this forum

In his day job, Chris (Smith) is a virologist; he has a lab with gene sequencing equipment.
- This lab was very active during the COVID pandemic
- I am sure activity will increase again if Monkeypox reaches as far as Cambridge!

See the answer from Chris, above.

I know. He's always introduced as such when making appearances on the national media.

[vhfpmr]

Wonder how effective the smallpox vaccines are after a few decades of being used, as I had the pressure injection at primary school, many years ago.  But will say the Covid vaccines are pretty effective, still here, despite having had it likely at least twice, but both times a negative test result, which is still possible with the quick tests. Last one was just like a moderate case of flu, while those who are antivax seem to be selecting themselves for Darwin awards, with a very high probability of winning one.

Darwin requires natural selection to take place before reproduction. Darwinism has failed to stop hereditary early age breast cancer or heart failure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards

[Petrochemicals]

Wonder how effective the smallpox vaccines are after a few decades of being used, as I had the pressure injection at primary school, many years ago.  But will say the Covid vaccines are pretty effective, still here, despite having had it likely at least twice, but both times a negative test result, which is still possible with the quick tests. Last one was just like a moderate case of flu, while those who are antivax seem to be selecting themselves for Darwin awards, with a very high probability of winning one.

Darwin requires natural selection to take place before reproduction. Darwinism has failed to stop hereditary early age breast cancer or heart failure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards

Yes, the people under threat from corona are beyond biological reproductive age.

[paul cotter]

There seems to be an assumption that covid has gone away. It is still spreading and mutating. It's unlikely to return as a variant with increased pathogenicity and/or the ability to evade current vaccines but it is a possibility. It's early days in the evolution of a fast evolving virus.

[set fair]

I see that the infamous youtubing nurse has already floated the idea that the monkeypox outbreak is down to lab gain of fuction. Some people will do anything for the love of money.

[alancalverd]

Yes, the people under threat from corona are beyond biological reproductive age.

My grandfather fathered his last child at the age of 84. Two friends who have been unable to work as pilots for the last 2 years thanks to "long COVID" are in their fifties, and would have died if they had not spotted the symptoms of hypoxia. I don't know any  younger victims but there are plenty of examples of folk in their twenties still disabled by this odd disease.

But I defer to your superior medical knowledge.

[Bored chemist]

Yes, the people under threat from corona are beyond biological reproductive age.

At least for men, reproductive age is probably "under 75" and that range accounts for more than 50% of covid deaths.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/

[Bored chemist]

. It's unlikely to return as a variant with increased pathogenicity and/or the ability to evade current vaccines

Why is that unlikely?

[Petrochemicals]

Yes, the people under threat from corona are beyond biological reproductive age.

My grandfather fathered his last child at the age of 84. Two friends who have been unable to work as pilots for the last 2 years thanks to "long COVID" are in their fifties, and would have died if they had not spotted the symptoms of hypoxia. I don't know any  younger victims but there are plenty of examples of folk in their twenties still disabled by this odd disease.

But I defer to your superior medical knowledge.

Yes there are isolated cases of men fathering children into their later years, but on the whole of it under 50s pervade. There are also a few cases of under 50s with no health conditions passing away from corona, but there are also cases of under 50 dying from bee stings or being hit by lightning. On the whole of it anybody threatened by corona is over 50.

Ironically the more you care about corona the less likely you are to breed, how many people will end up childless due to lockdowns and isolation now. If  20 year olds should dismiss corona, ignore the vaccine and rut like animals they are far more likely to procreate than those who have strict isolation wear masks and wait for a vaccine. My medical knowledge is clear enough on that.

[alancalverd]

The reason men tend to father fewer children in their later years is due to declining opportunity, not fertility, as humans mostly copulate within a narrow age cohort and female fertility declines rapidly after age 40.

The UK birthrate has declined at about 0.45 - 0.50% per year since about 2000. There is no evidence that lockdown had any effect.

Always worth checking the facts before posting on a science forum.

[Petrochemicals]

The reason men tend to father fewer children in their later years is due to declining opportunity, not fertility, as humans mostly copulate within a narrow age cohort and female fertility declines rapidly after age 40.

The UK birthrate has declined at about 0.45 - 0.50% per year since about 2000. There is no evidence that lockdown had any effect.

Always worth checking the facts before posting on a science forum.

The reason men tend to father fewer children in their later years is that a social norm has couples rasing children, couples coming usually from social events, those couples being similar in age. Couples will pass their biological reproductive age, repression of social interaction will lead to less children, a delayed effect similar to child development issues and cancer survival rates as seen lately. But that's sociology, a social science, no place on a technical science forum.

[alancalverd]

Review your concept of the social norm. It has changed considerably in the last 50 years.

The repression of social interaction during COVID lockdowns had no effect on birthrate in the UK.