How Many More Times?

John Vidal (former Guardian Environmental Editor) opines that Monkeypox is not the disease we should be worried about (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/25/monkeypox-disease-climate-change). Vidal clearly believes that Monkeypox is getting much media attention because recent cases are in richer, more developed parts of the world. A Monkeypox case in Nigeria (it's common there) clearly would not be 'news'. Vidal points out that recently there have been 100 cases of tick-transmitted Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever in Iraq, with 18 deaths. There have also been more than 100 cases of Bubonic plague in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; new cases of wild Polio in Malawi and Monzambique, as well as an outbreak of a deadly strain of Typhus in Nepal, India and China. As they didn't occur in Europe or the US, these outbreaks have largely passed 'under the media radar'. Vidal thinks it very likely that climate change will exacerbate the rapid spread of viruses and other pathogens to humans and their domestic animal populations. Climate change will force humans and wild animals into increasingly closer contact. We have already seen the astronomical health and economic costs of the still rampant Covid19 and HIV pandemics. How many more pandemics can be tolerated in our inter-linked world? We clearly need effective monitoring systems for disease outbreaks and plans for dealing with new zoonoses (where a pathogen 'jumps' to another host). Both require investment. Perhaps we shouldn't get side-tracked by conditions like Monkeypox? Monkeypox is uncomfortable for those infected and a danger to the immunocompromised. It's unlikely, however, to become a pandemic.