An extensive 3 years after the outbreak of COVID-19, almost all of the world has gradually adjusted, allowing for masks to be optional. Unfortunately, this may change due to the outbreak of Monkeypox; a new viral disease.

The relief of the drastic measures from COVID-19 has benefited many. However, the first case of Monkeypox was detected in the United Kingdom on May 6th, 2022, and is spreading rapidly through various forms of contact, like breathing and touch, which may lead to even more severe restrictive measures.

“Based on the way that monkeypox spreads, it makes it seem like it’s going to be much worse than covid was.” Junior Luke Monger said. “I’m pretty sure that they’ll quarantine us, but hopefully it doesn’t last as long as covid did. “

According to the World Health Organization, Monkeypox was first identified in the UK, but the first diagnosed individual had travel links from Nigeria, which may be where it developed. From May 18th to today, the monkeypox epidemic has 13,157 total confirmed cases from all over the U.S. 

“I’m really concerned for the leaders in the medical field. They take too much time to eradicate diseases,” Senior Alex Durham said. “I feel like [Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus] could´ve declared the disease as a serious threat a lot sooner instead of allowing Monkeypox to spread.”

After 2 months of waiting while Monkeypox was spreading, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Ghebreyesus, declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” on July 23. Ghebreysus’s late warning caused 82 countries to reach 34,448 total cases, with most recording their first monkeypox diagnosis. 

The Monkeypox infection rate doesn’t compete with covids indisputable numbers, yet, Junior Daniel Watts claims that it is as worrisome as when covid was first announced, but the lack of frequent transmissions may prevent another lonesome lockdown.  

“The symptoms of Monkeypox are pretty obvious and painful, unlike covid,” Watts said. “Even then, I don’t think they’ll bring back mandatory mask wear because [Monkeypox] mainly spreads through touch. Pretty sure they’d make us wear gloves instead of masks.”

Symptoms of Monkeypox begin developing after around 1-2 weeks of exposure including feelings of fever at first, which then escalates to acne-like rashes on the skin. Watts stated that vaccines do exist, however, they´re closed off to the public. Fortunately, after 2-4 weeks of infection, the Monkeypox rashes eventually disappear.

 “Like Ebola, Monkeypox has to be in the right environment to spread, otherwise it’s harmless,” Junior Brandon Chang said. “But the disease has mutated to be able to exist in colder areas. I don’t think it’ll be like a covid situation though, it has a slow infection rate and we’ll probably get a vaccine before it becomes a major issue.”