Recently, I discussed the new concerns over the hemorrhagic disease caused by the Marburg Virus, as there are two outbreaks in Africa.
In it, I mentioned, “monkeypox” (also known by the woke moniker, mpox). It turns out that I am not the only one still interested in this virus.
House Republicans are 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.
In a letter to acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and two subcommittee chairmen are demanding that the agency turn over documents and information regarding a government-funded experiment that reportedly involves swapping monkepox genes with a deadlier version of the virus.The lawmakers want to know whether this project was approved by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) review board tasked with oversight of research involving enhanced pathogens that could potentially cause a pandemic.This letter is a follow-up to an October 31, 2022, letter to which Republicans say the NIH never responded. GOP lawmakers accused NIH of “stonewalling” in a press release.”Based on the available information, it appears the project is reasonably anticipated to yield a lab-generated monkeypox virus that is 1,000 times more lethal in mice than the monkeypox virus currently circulating in humans and that transmits as efficiently as the monkeypox virus currently circulating in humans. The risk-benefit ratio indicates potentially serious risks without clear civilian practical applications,” the Republicans wrote.
Legal Insurrection readers will recall that monkeypox disappeared from the news cycle, chiefly due to social media and vaccination campaigns.
Well, the vaccination may not work as well as it once did.
An investigation has been launched in France after 59 per cent of people in a new monkeypox cluster claimed to be fully vaccinated.While the jab does not offer complete protection against the disease, usually only 25 per cent of French cases are in vaccinated individuals.The high vaccine rate in the Centre-Val de Loire cluster – 10 of 17 – has sparked fears of a mutation….Those affected in the current French cluster are all men aged between 24 and 56.“No parties or events common to the cases have been identified,” the French health authority said. “No person has required hospitalisation.”
Yet US officials are kicking off a vaccination campaign to get high-risk individuals vaccinated…likely ahead of June’s Gay Pride Month.
That surge could be worse than last year, federal modeling has found, but only about 23% of those at high risk for the virus have received vaccines, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Most communities have had too few people vaccinated to avoid a potential outbreak and have a “greater than 35%” risk of the virus resurging, the CDC said.”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.Those at highest risk include gay and bisexual men, and people who have multiple sex partners.
I predict there will be another surge in reports on mpox…super-charged or otherwise.
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