Are ravers responsible for the new monkeypox outbreak?
Just as we’re learning to live with COVID comes monkeypox, a disease that is almost never seen outside of Africa. But as of yesterday, cases have cropped in up Canada, the US, the UK, Belgium, Spain, Israel, France, Switzerland, Australia, and a few other countries.
The danger isn’t great. Transmission requires extremely close physical contact–actual contact with someone with exposed lesions (or items that have been touched by a symptomatic person, such as bedsheets). And so far, no one has died. Recovery comes in a few weeks. Still, after COVID, the last thing we want to hear is about the uncontrolled spread of a weird disease. (We have vaccines for this, so that’s good.)
But what’s the source of this income? Given the concentration of early cases, arrows point to Spain and Belgium. And what happened in those countries? A couple of large raves where there was apparently sexual activity. (Okay, so that sounds like just about every rave, but whatever….)
There was a Gay Pride event in the Canary Islands that attracted 80,000 people. Another big event was held recently in Belgium. There are also connections to something–“party events,” say officials–in Berlin.
