What Me Worry?

I’m not Alfred E. Neuman but I’m not worried because I did my homework. I understand how Monkeypox is spread and I am in the very low risk category. All the news media have headlines about Monkeypox spreading around the world, so lets see the facts…

Close personal contact: Nope I don’t fit in that category.

The CDC says,

How can a person lower the chance of getting monkeypox at places like raves, parties, clubs, and festivals?

When thinking about what to do, seek out information from trusted sources like the local health department. Second, consider how much close, personal, skin-to-skin contact is likely to occur at the event you plan to attend. If you feel sick or have a rash, do not attend any gathering, and see a healthcare provider.

Festivals, events, and concerts where attendees are fully clothed and unlikely to share skin-to-skin contact are safer. However, attendees should be mindful of activities (like kissing) that might spread monkeypox.

A rave, party, or club where there is minimal clothing and where there is direct, personal, often skin-to-skin contact has some risk. Avoid any rash you see on others and consider minimizing skin-to-skin contact.

Enclosed spaces, such as back rooms, saunas, sex clubs, or private and public sex parties where intimate, often anonymous sexual contact with multiple partners occurs, may have a higher likelihood of spreading monkeypox.

Nope, the only place I’ll probably go is to an outdoor Pride event and I’ve never been to any of the other places. Buses might have a higher chance but the chances are still low, NPR reports,

In general, to catch the virus through a nonsexual route, you likely need prolonged exposure to the virus or exposure to a large amount of virus, says infectious disease specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong at the University of California, San Francisco. It likely takes hours of repeatedly touching the virus on surfaces or breathing in particles to get infected. Or you would have to rub vigorously against another person's skin or mucous membranes, Chin-Hong says. "You would have to brush against them, like a scrubbing brush, to then make an abrasion in your skin that monkeypox can enter," he explains. "That would then cause a lesion on your arm, which we haven't really seen in this outbreak."

So you're not going to catch monkeypox through casual contact with a contaminated surface or infected person, Chin-Hong says. You're not going to get it while trying on a jacket at the thrift store or brushing against someone with a monkeypox rash on a bus at a festival or sitting on a seat on a plane where the previous occupant was infected.

I will tell you one precaution that I would take traveling it to take a package of Baby Wipes if have to use a public bathroom.

Other than that I won’t be taking any special precautions. What about you?

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