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A brief post about the current attention to monkeypox.
On 15 May 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) was notified of 4 confirmed cases of monkeypox from the United Kingdom. Note the date. Yet, of late, eyes have already been focused on the WHO for another issue.
The World Health Assembly, an arm of WHO, are meeting from tomorrow 22nd May 2022 until the 28th. There has been much disquiet about the proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations of 2005, which would herald in enhanced powers to WHO’s Director General, and his committee. The Assembly will look at or possibly ratify these amendments on the 24th May 2022.
Yesterday on 20th May 2022, the WHO held an emergency meeting to discuss whether or not to call a state of emergency, because more than 100 cases of monkeypox have been reported in several Western countries. The infection is usually found in West and Central Africa.
A look on the NHS website reveals that:
It's very uncommon to get monkeypox from a person with the infection because it does not spread easily between people.
I took this direct from the NHS website on 20/5/2022. To catch it from a person, there needs to be direct contact with bodily fluids.
Given that it doesn’t spread easily, why would you use this infection to simulate a pandemic?But this is exactly what happened last year in March.
Information from the website of NTI, a nonprofit organisation, reveals that they held a pandemic simulation with the Munich Security Conference in March 2021, where they simulated an outbreak of monkeypox
.
Interestingly, they started the simulation of a monkeypox outbreak in 15th May 2022. What are we to make of this incredible prophecy? It’s the date that the UK reported its first cases to WHO.
Is this all a distraction from from the meeting about the amendments to the International Health Regulations taking place from this weekend or does it signal the next infection to take top billing in the news. Time will tell. I leave you to ponder it!
The NIT report can be seen here.
I have also screenshot two pages of it, and pasted below, starting with the timeline they chose for the monkeypox simulation, and the opening page dated 2021.
It feels like some huge April Fool’s day prank. How are we not being monkeyed around?
There is a meme doing the rounds suggesting the k in monkey pox is silent.