Public health experts are comparing the Biden administration’s response to the monkeypox outbreak to President Donald Trump’s first actions at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the comparison is not favorable to the current White House occupant. From The Washington Post:

Public health experts, including within the Biden administration, are increasingly concerned that the federal government’s handling of the largest-ever U.S. monkeypox outbreak is mirroring its cumbersome response to the coronavirus pandemic 2½ years ago, with potentially dire consequences.

As a result, they said, community transmission is occurring largely undetected, and the critical window in which to control the outbreak is closing quickly.

“It’s been unbelievably challenging,” said Lauren Sauer, director of the Special Pathogens Research Network within a government-funded consortium of medical centers focused on pathogens training and education. “It felt like January 2020 all over again.”

In fariness, it looks like the experts are not making a distinction between Monkeypox and COVID-19 despite their being completely different contagions. So far there is no indication of genetic manipulation of the Monkeypox virus either. Consequently, that leaves few options for Biden to try to weaponize the virus (a good thing) so, not surprisingly, he’s obviously not very concerned about it.

One major difference between the two viruses is that the present epidemic is linked to sexual activity, as opposed to coronavirus which is spread by airborne pathogens. But Biden’s lack of attention to Monkeypox may also have to do with the fact that sexually active gay men were the first patients identified as being infected, so he’s treating Monkeypox like a hot potato in order to avoid a backlash from gays.

However, Biden may also be laying low until it is time to announce that we have to follow the politics … er … science once more. The World Health Organization will soon meet to deliberate on whether or not to declare the Monkeypox epidemic an international emergency. Here we go again?

PHOTO CREDIT: Close-up of monkeypox lesions on the arm and leg of a four year old female child. By not listed – http://phil.cdc.gov (CDC’s Public Health Image Library) Media ID #2329, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6314378