Re: CDC Dismisses Airborne Transmission of Monkeypox. Some Experts Disagree.

[Jim J. Dutton]

In article <XnsAC84DD0944...@95.216.243.224>
fudgepacking queer <homos...@monkeypox.com> wrote:
>
> ...I spent all night sucking cocks.

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on
Friday pushed back against the idea that the monkeypox virus can
spread through the air, saying the virus is usually transmitted
through direct physical contact with sores or contaminated
materials from a patient.

The virus may also be transmitted by respiratory droplets
expelled by an infected patient who comes into physical contact
with another person, they said. But it cannot linger in the air
over long distances.

Experts on airborne transmission of viruses did not disagree,
but some said the agency had not fully considered the
possibility that respiratory droplets, large or small, could be
inhaled at a shorter distance from a patient.

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The World Health Organization and several experts have said that
although “short-range” airborne transmission of monkeypox
appears to be uncommon, it is possible and warrants precautions.
Britain also includes monkeypox on its list of “high-consequence
infectious diseases” that can spread through the air.

“Airborne transmission may not be the dominant route of
transmission, nor very efficient, but it could still occur,”
said Linsey Marr, an expert on airborne viruses at Virginia Tech.

“I think the WHO has it right, and the CDC’s message is
misleading,” she added.

In the United States, the monkeypox outbreak has swelled to 45
cases in 15 states and the District of Columbia, CDC officials
said at a news conference. The global tally has risen swiftly
since May 13, when the first case was reported, to more than
1,450. At least 1,500 cases are still under investigation.

Historically, people with monkeypox have reported flulike
symptoms before a characteristic rash appears. But some patients
in the current outbreak have developed the rash first, and some
have not had these symptoms at all, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the
CDC’s director, said Friday.

No deaths have yet been recorded in the current outbreak, she
said.

Questions about airborne transmission of the monkeypox virus are
important because the answers, in turn, will bear on
recommendations for masking, ventilation and other protective
measures should the outbreak continue to grow.

The CDC said Thursday that monkeypox “is not known to linger in
the air and is not transmitted during short periods of shared
airspace.” The statement followed a New York Times article
Tuesday in which scientists described uncertainties about
transmission of the virus.

“What we do know is that those diagnosed with monkeypox in this
current outbreak described close, sustained physical contact
with other people who were infected with the virus,” Walensky
said Friday. “This is consistent with what we’ve seen in prior
outbreaks and what we know from decades of studying this virus
and closely related viruses.”

But monkeypox is poorly studied, other experts said, and
occasional episodes of airborne transmission have been reported
for the closely related smallpox virus. In a 2017 outbreak of
monkeypox in Nigeria, infections occurred in two health care
workers who had no direct contact with patients, scientists said
at a recent WHO conference.

A few patients in the current outbreak do not know when or how
they contracted the virus, CDC officials acknowledged.

The agency is right to reassure the public that the outbreak is
not a threat to most people because monkeypox is not nearly as
contagious as the coronavirus, said Dr. Donald Milton, an expert
on airborne virus transmission at the University of Maryland.

Airborne transmission is unlikely to be a risk for anyone other
than immediate caregivers, Milton said, but cautioned that
denying the possibility entirely “is the wrong way to do it.”

When a virus is present in saliva or in the respiratory tract,
as monkeypox has been shown to be, it can be expelled in
respiratory droplets when talking, singing, coughing or
sneezing, Milton and other experts said.

The droplets may be heavy and quickly fall onto objects or
people, or they may be small and light, lingering in the air for
long periods and distances. The CDC’s assessment hinges in part
on whether the virus is present only in large droplets or also
in the very small ones, called aerosols.

A similar debate unfolded at the beginning of the coronavirus
pandemic, when the agency and the WHO focused on large droplets
as the main route of transmission. But aerosols turned out to be
a major driver.

The new CDC guidance on monkeypox described the respiratory
droplets emitted by patients as “secretions that drop out of the
air quickly.”

But the virus “can be present in respiratory particles of any
size,” not just large droplets, said Lidia Morawska, an air
quality expert at Queensland University of Technology in
Australia.

“In my view, there is no basis to the statement that the virus
is transmitted only by large droplets and presenting infection
risk only on close distances,” she wrote in an email.

Patients in the current outbreak seem to have become infected
through close, sustained contact, CDC officials said Friday. But
this can be difficult to determine.

When people are in close contact, it can be impossible to
distinguish whether a virus was transmitted by touch, a spray of
large droplets or inhalation of aerosols, Marr said.

“The occurrence of transmission in such situations does not
define how the virus got from one person to another,” she said.
If transmission can occur by the spray of respiratory droplets,
“then it almost surely occurs by inhalation of aerosols, too.”

Still, most experts agree that whatever the contribution of
inhaled aerosols, monkeypox does not seem to be transmitted over
the distances that the coronavirus or the measles virus can be.

“I agree that most monkeypox transmission occurs by touch — most
likely direct touch between mucous membranes,” Milton said.

But the “CDC seems to be stuck on the old terminology,” he said.
“We really need to talk about transmission using terms that
clearly say how it happens — through touch, spray or inhalation.”

The CDC acknowledges the possibility of short-range airborne
transmission in its advice to clinicians. The agency recommends
that patients wear masks and that health care personnel caring
for them wear N95 respirators, which are needed to filter out
aerosols.

It also cautions that “procedures likely to spread oral
secretions should be performed in an airborne infection
isolation room.”

There is evidence that monkeypox can survive in aerosols and
that inhaled virus can cause disease in monkeys. Airborne
transmission may not be ideal for the monkeypox virus, however.

Patients may not release much virus in aerosols, the virus may
not remain infectious for long, or the amount of inhaled virus
needed to infect someone might be too high, Marr said.

If that is the case, airborne transmission is likely to occur
only among people who are close for long periods. Still, health
officials in Britain, like those in the United States, have said
many patients do not seem to know when or where they might have
become infected.

If they were infected without close contact, “it’s possible that
airborne transmission has been occurring more than we realize,”
Marr said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cdc-dismisses-airborne-transmission-
monkeypox-143001966.html

[Jim J. Dutton]

In article <djsLH.450$Ht5...@fx36.iad>