Los Angeles & NYC MPX cases at Zero

[Tactile Daddy]

NYC and LA MPX cases at 0.  MPX outbreak over in major cities.  Mainstream media @nytimes would do us a favor by sharing good news, not panic.  Thanks to all in the gay/LGBTQIA+ community and their allies who made this happen. @dr_demetre @benryanwriter @LizHighleyman

Dr Klausner USC Tweet

[Guest]

Prepare for either 

(1) An angry mob:

or (2) A set of apology posts for those attacking me on the subject 2 weeks ago.... 🙄

I definitely won't hold my breath for #2! 😄

[Tactile Daddy]

21 hours ago, Unicorn said:

Prepare for either 

(1) An angry mob:

or (2) A set of apology posts for those attacking me on the subject 2 weeks ago.... 🙄

I definitely won't hold my breath for #2! 😄

Oy 

I didn't see your previous post 

So far the Mob hasn't attacked... 

I'll hold my tongue if they do... 

👅

[+ Axiom2001]

This is wonderful news.  Think it is at zero because a vast majority of us have had two or more MP vaccinations?

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

16 minutes ago, Axiom2001 said:

This is wonderful news.  Think it is at zero because a vast majority of us have had two or more MP vaccinations?

It is certainly wonderful news.  But mass vaccination wasn't the savior because it didn't happen.  A vast majority of "us" (sexually active gay men) still have had no monkeypox vaccine.  I know of 1 other person out of 50 gay men my age that had the monkeypox vaccine.  Maybe half of the most sexually active men visiting bathhouses had vaccines, and that along with awareness, mindfulness, and slight changes in behavior helped stop it.   I believe in the effectiveness of vaccines, but the monkeypox vaccine was not a mass rollout.

Edited December 13, 2022 by Vegas_nw1982

[+ FrankR]

7 minutes ago, Vegas_nw1982 said:

It is certainly wonderful news.  But mass vaccination wasn't the savior.  A vast majority of us (sexually active gay men) still have had no monkeypox vaccine. Maybe half of the most sexually active men visiting bathhouses had vaccines, and that helped stop it.

In NYC the Health Department indicates that the majority of “at risk” individuals received the vaccine. I cant speak to the situation in LA. Behavior changes helped, but the vaccine helped a great deal more than you give it credit. 

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

29 minutes ago, FrankR said:

In NYC the Health Department indicates that the majority of “at risk” individuals received the vaccine. I cant speak to the situation in LA. Behavior changes helped, but the vaccine helped a great deal more than you give it credit. 

According to this article from Nov 17, NYC administered second doses of the vaccine to 50,000 people.  Not a small number, but certainly not enough to cover all the gays in New York City.  That's maybe 15% of gay men in all of the boroughs.  They focused on those heading to clubs on the weekends and those with HIV at clinics.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/nyregion/monkeypox-vaccine-van-nyc.html

I'm agreeing that vaccines were important.  But it was vaccination of high risk/high profile locations and not vaccination of a vast majority of gay men.  This seems to only be effective to stop diseases spread by close contact.  Diseases spread by air such as measles or smallpox certainly need mass population vaccination.

Edited December 13, 2022 by Vegas_nw1982
Added link to article

[+ FrankR]

2 hours ago, Vegas_nw1982 said:

According to this article from Nov 17, NYC administered second doses of the vaccine to 50,000 people.  Not a small number, but certainly not enough to cover all the gays in New York City.  That's maybe 15% of gay men in all of the boroughs.  They focused on those heading to clubs on the weekends and those with HIV at clinics.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/nyregion/monkeypox-vaccine-van-nyc.html

I'm agreeing that vaccines were important.  But it was vaccination of high risk/high profile locations and not vaccination of a vast majority of gay men.  This seems to only be effective to stop diseases spread by close contact.  Diseases spread by air such as measles or smallpox certainly need mass population vaccination.

The 50,000 number is for first and second doses. Approx another 50,000 received just a first dose by November 18. 
 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/nyregion/monkeypox-vaccine-van-nyc.html

[Guest]

Any speculation as to what caused the epidemic to die is just that--speculation. MPX died out even sooner in Europe, with lower vaccination rates. Vaccines probably had something to do with the illness's disappearance, but how much is anyone's guess. Why didn't Ebola spread when it came to the US? We don't know much about MPX, other than that it shares similarities with smallpox and probably cowpox. The vaccine used wasn't ever even tested against MPX. Why was smallpox so devastating to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, compared to Europeans? We have to be humble about what we don't know. 

[BeamerBikes]

Also, it's not eradicated either. The African doctor who first raised this as having a sexual component in transmission will confirm. It never went away in Africa.  

It's hard to say if it never got a firm foothold in Northern climates before the most active summer flesh on flesh events started to become more infrequent vs how much was due to vaccinations. 

End of the day, it can still hop a ride on plane from an outbreak site to Europe and/or US center next summer. I dont know if we seen the last of it.  Hopefully there's enough vaccinated in the highest risk base to make sure it won't cluster up again anytime soon. 

Either way, I don't regret my decision to get the vaccine even late.