Although the monkeypox outbreak is by no means a pandemic or even epidemic, the Belgium government made what was a first move to mandate compulsory 21-day quarantines for monkeypox cases as four cases emerged in that European nation. The first such country to introduce such measures, the National Agency for Care and Health, first reported in the French language Belgium media La Libre after consultation with a group there known as the Risk Assessment Group (RAG).
The agency reported that high-risk contacts, on the other hand, were not required to self-isolate. A disease in the same family as smallpox with symptoms including distinct bumpy rashes, fever, aches and sore muscles, and headache, monkeypox isn’t as dangerous as smallpox. Although the mortality rate is less than 4%, at least some experts express concern about the geographic distribution of the cases.
Risk of nationwide outbreak low
According to the Belgian daily Le Soir, the Belgian Institute of Tropical Medicine shared that with monkeypox, there is a low risk of national outbreak. While La Libre reported three cases on Saturday, Emmanuel Andre, a microbiologist with the National Reference lab for COVID-19 in Belgium, tweeted the fourth case of monkeypox presented in the country.
WHO updates?
By Saturday, May 28, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 92 confirmed cases across 12 nations, with another 28 cases under investigation—they are suspected. Again, experts ponder why this disease has spread so quickly out of Africa into Europe and North America, from the UK and Germany to Sweden, from Italy and Spain across to the USA and Canada, and all the way to Australia.
Researchers have four key questions?
The medical journal Nature published an article on the Monkeypox outbreak, which included four key questions top of mind. A lot has occurred in just three weeks. 400 confirmed or suspected cases in at least 20 non-African nations representing the largest such outbreak out of Africa. With scientists on alert, they haven’t found any obvious link among many of the clusters of cases, “raising the possibility of undetected, local transmission of the virus,” reports Max Kozlov writing for Nature. Researchers want to know:
How did the current outbreak start (TrialSite reminds that despite advancing technology and armies of top scientists around the world, this vexing question hasn’t been answered yet for SARS-CoV-2, the worst pandemic in a century)
Can genetically change in the virus explain the latest outbreaks
Can the outbreaks be contained?
Is the virus spreading differently now compared with previous outbreaks?
Vaccine Approved just two years ago.
TrialSite reported that a virus for Monkeypox was approved just a few years before this outbreak.
The developer, Bavarian Nordic, is based out of Hellerup, Denmark, with production centers elsewhere in Denmark, research in Germany, and offices in Switzerland and North Carolina, USA. The company uses viral vectors in its research and development.
While the first case of this outbreak was confirmed May 6, 2022, with a British resident who, after a trip to Nigeria, presented symptoms by April 29, according to WHO. Bavarian Nordic stock was at 132.20 on May 6. With recognition of a bigger problem, the stock started spiking up by May 18, and by May 23 hit 224.10. The current price is 204.40 as of Sunday, May 29.
On May 19, the company reported that it had secured a large purchase of its vaccine product with an “undisclosed European country to supply its IMVANEX® smallpox vaccine in response to new cases of monkeypox evolving during May 2022.
Politico in Europe reported that countries across Europe were already vaccinating people in anticipation of monkeypox. For example, France announced vaccinations in an attempt to push back the spread of the virus. The Directorate of Health was moving to implement a strategy including vaccines to reduce human-to-human transmission.
The French media reported that the French National Authority for Health (HAS) “considers that a reactive vaccination strategy seems relevant given the incubation times of the disease, often between 6 and 16 days, but also the vaccination strategy adopted in other European countries and the preclinical data transmitted by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) which, although preliminary and limited, support the interest of vaccination quickly after exposure to the virus.”
Biowarfare Claims
Given the ongoing Ukraine war and myriad conflicts over COVID-19 (and the potential for that pathogen to have been created in a laboratory either in the United States or in China—or both, fear, uncertainty, and doubt, to paranoia rage online. Some people and groups online have claimed that the current monkeypox outbreak is actually representative of some form of biowarfare. Monkeypox does show up on a list of “select agents and toxins,” biological agents and toxins the U.S. government has determined “have the potential to pose a severe threat to both human and animal health, to plant health, or to animal and plant products''
Fact-checkers from Poynter have responded, including an interview with academic expert in the field, thus refuting such claims.
The probability of this outbreak having to do with intentional human intervention is low, and there is no evidence of such an origin. But still not out of the COVID-19 crisis and the fact that the source still hasn’t been identified, many people understandably are on the edge.
An Independent Eye
On the other hand, governments and their various executive branch public health agencies over the past couple of years have actually benefited from unprecedented power and influence, not to mention funding. While public health is, unfortunately, most often underfunded, a confluence of political, social, and economic forces interplay during this pandemic that will carry over into other outbreaks. Careful attention to such agency behavior is warranted. Politicians must always be watched with the money.
TrialSite continues to monitor this situation and will provide periodic updates.
https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/belgium-first-nation-to-require-compulsory-21-day-monkeypox-quarantine-2e7781d9