The perfect storm of summer’s newsless depths and a happening that can be spun into a handy headline has ensured that we’ve been treated to a stream of monkeypox articles in recent days, from the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring the ‘mpox’ outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” to Sweden reporting its first case of the disease.
Like most ordinary people, though, my eyes glazed over as I quickly scrolled past. It was only upon later reflection that I examined that reaction, and came to the conclusion that the next time there’s a concerted effort to convince the public that a disease outbreak ought to be taken seriously – whether that be this current one or a future epidemic – they’re going to have a hell of a difficult time after the Covid pandemic, because of the gross imbalance between threat and response on that occasion.
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