Ripples In A Teacup

On August 14, 2024, WHO called the latest mpox outbreak an ‘emergency of international concern’. A UNICEF press release states that children are among those at great risk of contracting Mpox in Congo , one of the most affected countries. Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is a self-limiting viral infection caused by mpox virus (MPXV). At least 99,176 cases and 208 deaths due to mpox have been reported from 116 countries since 2022, according to data from the WHO. This is the second time the infection has received the designation in as many years — the outbreak between July 2022 and May 2023 was also declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Mpox was discovered in 1958 (in captive monkeys, hence the original misnomer “monkeypox”) and the first human case was identified in 1970. Then for decades it was largely neglected by the scientific and public health communities, regarded as an uncommon infection in remote rural areas in tropical Africa without releva...

  A few weeks ago, I read this interesting piece in the NewYork Times about the possibility of the US, Russia and China resuming nuclear testing. "From 1945 to 2017, nuclear nations carried out more than 2,000 explosive tests in the atmosphere, underground and underwater, mostly in remote places. Some of the atmospheric tests were magnitudes more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan, sickening and displacing thousands." Seven decades after Castle Bravo, the United States’ most devastating nuclear test, the people of Bikini Atoll are yet to  receive fair compensation . The Soviets do not have a better record.  Hundreds of tests were carried out between 1949 and 1989 on the barren steppe near the city of Semey, formerly known as Semipalatinsk, close to the Kazakh-Russian border. The effect of radiation had a devastating impact on the environment and local people's health, and continues to affect lives there today. Scary! Hope this does not come to pass!