Lessons to learn look more like failures repeated
Viral infection
Monkeypox, a rare viral infection, is spread through skin-to-skin contact. It also spreads if someone touches linen used by an infected person. Symptoms include a fever, a distinctive rash with bumps with zits on the body, aches and fatigue.
It had previously most commonly been seen in African countries. This year's outbreak began in Europe.
While it has mostly affected gay and bisexual men in the US, it also has affected some in the general population. A child in New York has contracted the virus, so too have 11 more children nationwide. A pregnant woman who delivered her baby this year also contracted monkeypox. Her baby didn't.
Several public health officials believe that the US made similar mistakes in monkeypox testing, treatments and vaccines as it did in the coronavirus pandemic.
In July, Scott Gottlieb, an FDA commissioner during the presidency of Donald Trump, heaped criticism on the US response to monkeypox in a New York Times opinion article he wrote.
"Our country's response to monkeypox has been plagued by the same shortcomings we had with COVID-19," he said.
"Now if monkeypox gains a permanent foothold in the United States and becomes an endemic virus that joins our circulating repertoire of pathogens, it will be one of the worst public health failures in modern times not only because of the pain and peril of the disease but also because it was so avoidable."
Dowdy, however, disagrees. "COVID-19 has killed millions of people, whereas that is unlikely to happen with monkeypox", Dowdy said, adding that everything should be done to curb the spread of monkeypox.
A simple test can easily identify monkeypox. But at the beginning of the outbreak, only tests that were produced by laboratories affiliated with the CDC were authorized for use, which created a backlog in testing.
Local officials also followed CDC guidance that stated tests could only be given to patients with visible lesions, or rashes－both signs of monkeypox. Then they could do contact tracing.
