Monkeypox virus

"Maybe not the most appropriate word" is code for an admission of guilt for the crime of falsely accusing another poster of something they didn't say.

I'm also glad to see that you've admitted that "LGB-T men are at heightened risk" of Monkeypox viral disease. This is not something that you've admitted up to this point. That's progress, too.

And that's why, just with HIV, a targeted campaign is required - especially leading up to Pride, but also for beyond it - to ensure that spread is minimal within the community over the coming period.

The wider population will still need to be informed, too, of the risk of catching the virus from the LGB-T community who may become infected during the Pride mass events. The risk of the wider population catching it from other means is miniscule in comparison.

That's the focus: the LGB-T community, whilst also ensuring the wider population is appreciably informed of the wider risks posed to them.

Which was always my position to begin with.

Why on Earth would we hide the information from the rest of the country?

So I'm glad to see that you have modified your position to one that aligns with what I and most others have been recommending since the inception of this thread. @Annasopra has argued otherwise, of course, but the same points I've made to you apply to their posts, too.

If you agree with my position, then we're all good.

I shamed nobody, especially not the gay and bi community. As a member of that community, why on Earth would I "shame" anyone from it?

Of course not. But at the same time, I'm not going to runaway and hide from the reasons why Monkeypox viral disease has spread among the community. In the same way that syphilis is spreading like wildfire through the community over the past 5-years.

You have to start asking yourself the question, or the community does: why do we keep having consistently higher rates of all STIs? And now we are seeing spread with non-STIs, such as Monkeypox?

It's a legitimate question to ask, and it casts light on the the lack of personal responsibility within the our community to mitigate viral and microbial spread.

I agree with this.

An education campaign has already started, and it may well be enough - for the general public, that is.

Close contacts of gay men (who live in the same apartment, for example) may need to maintain a heightened state of alert compared to the general public, but they will know by now if they are at any additional risk. Knowledge of the symptoms of this disease is already pretty widespread.

The focus now should be to mitigate spread among the high risk groups, such as gay men and MSM. More needs to be done among the LGBT community to ensure that the message gets out far and wide re: symptoms, and the need for affected men to isolate whenever symptoms emerge (as this is when the disease becomes infectious; there is no asymptomatic transmission with this viral disease). That said, there is likely going to be additional spread due to the upcoming Pride festival and the knock-on intimacy and promiscuity that naturally follows from that.

I wouldn't be drawn into the scaremongering sensationalism if I were you.

The research Dr Campbell references talks about how one-third of the virus was assembled for the purposes of testing certain kinds of PCR test.

One-third of a virus cannot escape and cause worldwide epidemics. The source of this spread has already been deduced to have come from Nigeria to gay sex festivals in Madrid and Belgium - which then infected close contacts. This wasn't leaked from China, nor was it possible to have been leaked from China.

So whilst he is technically correct to say that the Wuhan Institute of Virology has worked with Monkeypox, it's not that the latter are assembling entire genomes which carry the risk of leaking. Campbell himself points this out later in the video. In fact, the research he quotes states that the team consciously assembled only one-third of the genome precisely to eliminate the risk of laboratory leaks / threats to national security.

It's also worth noting that virologic research compounds work on dozens of viruses at any point in time. We shouldn't be surprised that any virologic institute is working on Monkeypox, or any other viruses we haven't given a second's thought to.

That said, Campbell has successfully promoted the video by framing it / titling the video from a certain angle. That's wise on his part, as it will attract shares and comment and so on, but this method of promotion carries the risk that some people may take false or misleading interpretations of it, as you clearly have.

It's the equivalent of reading a sensationalist headline from The Sun newspaper, taken and twisted out of context until you read the full story and come to a far more sober, accurate, and objective conclusion.

I agree, Dr Campbell is no crank.

He's not perfect of course, and may occasionally error - but at least he corrects himself when he does.

I don't understand why some people hurl abuse at him like that. Jealousy perhaps?

I think he has done a great job on Monkeypox assessment so far, to be honest.