A Texas toddler became the first presumptive positive monkeypox case in a child in the state. According to the report, aside from a residual rash, the child is otherwise asymptomatic. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo referred to the case as a “presumptive positive.”
“I say presumptive positive because all of our cases are presumptive positives until we get complete confirmation from the CDC,” Judge Hidalgo said. “To put into context, so far, we have not yet had a presumptive positive not be a confirmed monkeypox case. At some point, that will happen but so far, it hasn’t happened.”
“We are in contact and have been in contact with the family who are fully cooperative,” the county judge stated. “The family has helped us initiate contact tracing with the folks that this child has been in contact with. We are still in the early stages of the contact tracing, so we’re not finished.”
Yeah, I have some questions. As we’ve pointed out, 95% of monkeypox patients have contracted the disease through homosexual sex. However, because some believe pointing this out might “stigmatize” the gay community, this fact has been buried by the media, and even the Centers for Disease Control, which insists that monkeypox can be transmitted via skin contact and by touching objects.
Even medical experts are downplaying the connection between monkeypox and homosexual sex.
“I would like people to think about how easy it is for people to transmit chickenpox, which chickenpox isn’t a true pox virus like Monkeypox, but it’s easily transmitted like Monkeypox,” Dr. Noreen Mayberry, a toxicologist and medical scientist, told Fox26 Houston, which initially reported on the Texas toddler.
Related: Still, Trust the CDC? Not for Long…
She also insisted that the virus is not a sexually transmitted disease and that it can be spread in different ways, and that the humid climate means the virus can survive longer on surfaces.
“Now is the time more than ever to keep those wipes on hand and to wipe a place down,” said Mayberry. “When you come home, those fibers, clothing, you should take that stuff off before you get into bed.”
She added, “The thing about pox is that it can be transmitted through close contact, touch, or sitting in a place that has been exposed.”
While that may technically be true, recent peer-reviewed studies published in The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine have confirmed that homosexual sex, not skin contact, is driving the disease’s transmission—not skin contact, not touching objects. That doesn’t mean the child is the victim of any sexual abuse (and hopefully, that is not the case), but that doesn’t mean that local health officials should turn a blind eye to the disease’s epidemiology. On the contrary, questions should be asked, and the statistics of what is driving the overwhelming majority of monkeypox transmission should not be ignored.
I’d really like to believe that local officials wouldn’t ignore the possibility that the child is a victim of abuse or that the media would not report specific details to make sure the gay community isn’t “stigmatized.” I sincerely hope that. But when the local media goes to extraordinary efforts to quote an expert who is not being honest about the epidemiology of monkeypox, I’m sorry to say that my confidence is low.