[U: Grapixxx] Maybe Mpox Should Be Called… Squirrel-Pox…?

In the early stages of any viral vector outbreak, misinformation tends to spread. So too, here.

Read the latest, on what should probably be called squirrel-pox:

. . .Sequencing the genome of mpox viruses taken from the infected [monkeys] revealed the circulating strain was nearly identical to one isolated from a small rodent found dead three months earlier, a fire-footed rope squirrel.

The team then moved on to examining monkey droppings they had collected in the months leading up to the outbreak (the surveillance in Taï National Park is truly thorough). In one sample collected eight weeks before the outbreak, they found the DNA of the virus, alongside DNA from a fire-footed rope squirrel. . . .

That’s. . . all but definitive. Fire-footed squirrels, indeed. And perhaps we should stop maligning monkeys.

Onward.

नमस्ते