CDC Warns U.S. at Risk for Monkeypox Surge Even Worse Than the One in 2022

CDC Warns U.S. at Risk for Monkeypox Surge Even Worse Than the One in 2022

The last time I reported on monkeypox, House Republicans were demanding answers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) related to research experiments they say could result in a “supercharged” monkeypox virus that the agency funded.

While there is no update on any answers, there is news about monkeypox…which has now been rebranded “mpox” out of concern for woke sensibilities.

Based on new modeling, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning that the US could see a renewed surge of mpox infections even worse than last year, new federal modeling has concluded.

The agency is pushing for enhanced vaccination, especially in “at-risk” groups.

With “moderate confidence,” the CDC’s modelers said in a report published Thursday that most parts of the country have a “greater than 35%” risk of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, resurging over the coming months.

“It’s not us saying get more people vaccinated because we think it’s a good idea. We need to get more people vaccinated because we know there’s a linear relationship between how many people are vaccinated and the chance of not having an outbreak,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, deputy coordinator for the White House’s mpox response, told CBS News on Thursday.

The CDC estimates that just 23% of the “at-risk population” for mpox, like men who have sex with men and people with multiple sex partners, have been fully vaccinated. Vaccination rates are in the single digits across many states.

With June’s Gay Pride Month a few weeks away, San Francisco is sounding the alarm.

San Francisco’s public health community continues to urge people to get vaccinated for mpox after a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report concluded that the United States may see a worse outbreak of the disease this year than in 2022. Locally, mpox vaccinations are expected to be offered at community events leading up to Pride in June.

But both the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation stressed to the Bay Area Reporter that last year’s vaccination efforts paid dividends — the city hasn’t seen a case since January 20, according to DPH’s seven-day rolling average — and also put the city on a better track to face a potential resurgence.

“Last year, SFDPH and the community came together to stop the spread of mpox, and over 50,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered in San Francisco,” the department stated to the B.A.R. “Forty-two percent of all people living with HIV in San Francisco, and 65% of people who had received PrEP at SF City Clinic prior to June 2022 had received at least one dose of mpox vaccine as of November 4, 2022. This is significantly higher than CDC’s nationwide estimate, that nationwide, 23% of the ‘at-risk’ population has been vaccinated.”

The CDC also recently release new data on the 2022 mpox deaths. According to the information analyzed, almost 90% of mpox-related deaths in the country were among black men, and nearly all had weakened immune systems.

This, in turn, is leading to calls for equity-based medical service strategies, despite the very low level of fatality associated with the infection.

From May 2022 to March 2023, 30,235 people in the US were diagnosed with mpox, previously known as monkeypox. Thirty-eight deaths were linked to mpox; 36 of them were men, and 33 were Black men. The average age of those who died was 34.

… Although most of the people who died got one or more prompt treatments and intensive care, nearly a quarter had delays of three to seven weeks from diagnosis to treatment, and two got no treatment for mpox.

“These findings highlight the importance of integrating prevention, testing, and treatment for multiple sexually associated infections,” the report says. “Equitable access to prevention, treatment, and engagement and retention in care for both mpox and HIV should be prioritized, particularly among [b]lack men and other persons at risk for sexually associated infections.”

A separate CDC report published Thursday urged equity-based strategies, such as tailored messages and expanded vaccine services, to increase vaccination among racial and ethnic minorities.

The actual CDC report contains an eye-popping list of woke reasons for personal choices regarding obtaining the mpox vaccination.

Black and Hispanic males might face barriers to prevention, including access to information and to mpox vaccines resulting from gaps in dissemination of information, language barriers, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, stigma, discrimination, unemployment, and poverty (9). In addition, homophily in sexual partnership selection patterns has been associated with increased disparities in the incidence of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV (10) and might be associated with disparities in mpox incidence.

I suspect that if this year’s surge is worse, the results will be used as even more of an excuse to push for an equity-based approach to medicine.

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