Corporate media outlets and COVID-19 alarmists are comparing the coronavirus pandemic to the new monkeypox outbreak, despite the two ailments having little in common.
Experts and journalists have been critical of the Biden administration’s monkeypox response and are drawing comparisons to the U.S. COVID-19 response, which started under former President Donald Trump. But unlike COVID-19, monkeypox hasn’t killed any Americans, is harder to spread, and presents drastically different symptoms than the respiratory virus that has killed more than one million Americans.
According to Axios, COVID-19 “missteps” are “hanging over” Biden’s monkeypox response. “Some public health experts saw echoes of COVID-19 in the government’s halting response,” reported CBS News.
The most recent data available from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows there have been zero deaths from monkeypox in the U.S. or Europe. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have confirmed 1,470 monkeypox cases in the U.S. across 42 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
COVID-19, on the other hand, has killed nearly six million people globally, according to the World Health Organization. (RELATED: Washington DC Health Department Promotes Monkeypox Vaccination For Staff Of ‘Sex Clubs’)
But according to Time Magazine, the lack of monkeypox testing available in the U.S. shows that the country’s leaders learned “little” from COVID-19. In The Washington Post, experts say that the U.S. response to monkeypox “mirrors the missteps” of coronavirus. In New York City, monkeypox caught people off guard “again” just like with COVID-19, according to The New York Times.
COVID-19 spread to every corner of society. Men and women, old and young, straight and gay all were susceptible to infection. Monkeypox is contained largely to the gay male community. In Europe, less than one percent of confirmed cases are in women. Less than one percent of European cases were in confirmed heterosexual individuals.
Finally, some demographic data on #monkeypox, from the US epicenter, #NYC. They’re a bit patchy, but they are consistent with national and international trends, with 95.5% of cases in men. There are **no cases in women** and 7 cases (2.1%) in trans people. @NYCHealthy pic.twitter.com/FcTOF5DNeP
— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) July 15, 2022
The monkeypox virus doesn’t spread through aerosol particles like the coronavirus. It spreads through close physical contact, often of a sexual nature, according to health experts.
Still, papers like the Washington Post are running op-eds calling for monkeypox to be declared a pandemic and warning of imminent mass casualties. It seems unlikely the virus will have an impact anywhere close to COVID-19.