4 ms·

COVID has mutated and is now much easier to transmit. There are now monkeypox cases where toddlers are getting it. If it mutates and becomes more transmissible

COVID has mutated and is now much easier to transmit. There are now monkeypox cases where toddlers are getting it. If it mutates and becomes more transmissible it seems plausible that some people will look at the history and say If we had stopped it from getting a foothold, it never would have mutated into the variant that transmits so easily through the population. Also people were blaming people for not wearing masks even if they were never around a grandma. Just because they might get it and infect someone who might then be around someone's grandma. Being a link in the causal chain was enough to be condemned by some people.

brewdad 4y ago
Plenty of actors have never even met Kevin Bacon but can be linked to him. Public health crises require the public to resolve them.
vineyardmike 4y ago
Mask wearing is not the same as avoiding deep skin-to-skin contact or sexual behavior. You can easily avoid this behavior with grandma if you've been engaging in high-risk behavior, and you can avoid this behavior if you have to interact with your toddler. It is much harder to avoid covid since you generally have to breath air and be around people in day to day life and it was always dangerously contagious. Skin-to-skin contact is not part of day to day life for most people (masseuses?). The current contractors of the virus are like 98% gay men, and that group of people is - unsurprising - not very open to being told "your lifestyle is bad". That said, they're very good at finding disease in the community and making safe decisions [1]. Just like AIDS, it'll inevitably be the "normal" population that becomes the main spreading group, since that group is way less responsible overall at managing risk. Tying or attempting to blame promiscuity as the issue won't solve the problem, won't stop the spread, and it'll hurt a group of people already under constant attack. [1] https://www.wired.com/story/provincetown-covid-delta-outbreak-response/ https://www.wired.com/story/provincetown-covid-delta-outbrea...
- crackercrews 4y ago
  You seem to assume that it will not mutate to become more transmissible. Comparisons to HIV seem inapt since you can't get that except by fluid exchange. This can be transmitted by touch. It currently requires lots of touch. A more transmissible version could require less. We all hope it won't mutate, but if it does we may look back and wish we'd been more proactive at the beginning.
  - vineyardmike 4y ago
    On the contrary, it will mutate (I'm not a viral scientist but seems expected) and it won't and isn't only sexual. Blaming sexual activity isn't reasonable because its not a "STI". Sex is a vector, but not the sole vector. It will mutate, it will spread, and it won't be stopped by telling gay people to stop having sex or shaming them for it. Proactivity is vaccinating the high-risk, and getting the word out there on transmission vectors - and this is happening. Proactivity is setting the "global health emergency" status by the WHO so governments can be aware to start ramping up vaccine productions and teaching doctors/nurses/etc to start screening for it. Proactivity is getting samples into labs so it can be tracked, and setting up tests so we can more easily identify cases. Proactivity is NOT shaming gay people for having sex. People were shamed for not wearing a mask with COVID when COVID was killing thousands and we didn't have vaccines and we didn't have tests and we couldn't keep hospitals functioning and old people were actively dying in alarming numbers. COVID took 14 days before symptoms started, so you couldn't adjust your risk and activities according to your health status. Today, we don't shame people for not still wearing a mask - because we have vaccines that work even better and are widely distributed. Likewise, we shouldn't shame people for engaging in sex, but instead encourage them to get vaccinated.
    - crackercrews 4y ago
      > Likewise, we shouldn't shame people for engaging in sex, but instead encourage them to get vaccinated. If we had enough vaccines, they alone would be a great solution. But we don't, so we need to consider other ways to slow/stop the spread. > it won't be stopped by telling gay people to stop having sex or shaming them for it. For a lot of people, sexual orientation has nothing to do with how they view this. Their view would be the same if monkeypox were spreading among all young adults. Projecting anti-gay sentiment onto these people is not productive. It is also not accurate. They simply believe that it's not too much to give up promiscuous sexual behavior for 8 weeks or so. They would ask the same of straight people if it were spreading in that community.

brewdad 4y ago

Plenty of actors have never even met Kevin Bacon but can be linked to him. Public health crises require the public to resolve them.

vineyardmike 4y ago

Mask wearing is not the same as avoiding deep skin-to-skin contact or sexual behavior. You can easily avoid this behavior with grandma if you've been engaging in high-risk behavior, and you can avoid this behavior if you have to interact with your toddler. It is much harder to avoid covid since you generally have to breath air and be around people in day to day life and it was always dangerously contagious. Skin-to-skin contact is not part of day to day life for most people (masseuses?). The current contractors of the virus are like 98% gay men, and that group of people is - unsurprising - not very open to being told "your lifestyle is bad". That said, they're very good at finding disease in the community and making safe decisions [1]. Just like AIDS, it'll inevitably be the "normal" population that becomes the main spreading group, since that group is way less responsible overall at managing risk. Tying or attempting to blame promiscuity as the issue won't solve the problem, won't stop the spread, and it'll hurt a group of people already under constant attack. [1] https://www.wired.com/story/provincetown-covid-delta-outbreak-response/ https://www.wired.com/story/provincetown-covid-delta-outbrea...

crackercrews 4y ago
You seem to assume that it will not mutate to become more transmissible. Comparisons to HIV seem inapt since you can't get that except by fluid exchange. This can be transmitted by touch. It currently requires lots of touch. A more transmissible version could require less. We all hope it won't mutate, but if it does we may look back and wish we'd been more proactive at the beginning.
- vineyardmike 4y ago
  On the contrary, it will mutate (I'm not a viral scientist but seems expected) and it won't and isn't only sexual. Blaming sexual activity isn't reasonable because its not a "STI". Sex is a vector, but not the sole vector. It will mutate, it will spread, and it won't be stopped by telling gay people to stop having sex or shaming them for it. Proactivity is vaccinating the high-risk, and getting the word out there on transmission vectors - and this is happening. Proactivity is setting the "global health emergency" status by the WHO so governments can be aware to start ramping up vaccine productions and teaching doctors/nurses/etc to start screening for it. Proactivity is getting samples into labs so it can be tracked, and setting up tests so we can more easily identify cases. Proactivity is NOT shaming gay people for having sex. People were shamed for not wearing a mask with COVID when COVID was killing thousands and we didn't have vaccines and we didn't have tests and we couldn't keep hospitals functioning and old people were actively dying in alarming numbers. COVID took 14 days before symptoms started, so you couldn't adjust your risk and activities according to your health status. Today, we don't shame people for not still wearing a mask - because we have vaccines that work even better and are widely distributed. Likewise, we shouldn't shame people for engaging in sex, but instead encourage them to get vaccinated.
  - crackercrews 4y ago
    > Likewise, we shouldn't shame people for engaging in sex, but instead encourage them to get vaccinated. If we had enough vaccines, they alone would be a great solution. But we don't, so we need to consider other ways to slow/stop the spread. > it won't be stopped by telling gay people to stop having sex or shaming them for it. For a lot of people, sexual orientation has nothing to do with how they view this. Their view would be the same if monkeypox were spreading among all young adults. Projecting anti-gay sentiment onto these people is not productive. It is also not accurate. They simply believe that it's not too much to give up promiscuous sexual behavior for 8 weeks or so. They would ask the same of straight people if it were spreading in that community.