CDC, Reuters quash warnings about airborne transmission of monkeypox

On Friday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Reuters news agency escalated attacks on those who warned that the deadly monkeypox virus can be airborne. In a “fact check” article published by Reuters, the news agency claims that social media posts exposing unresolved changes to the CDC’s monkeypox guidelines from late May “miss the context” of the changes.

The Reuters article came after Dana Parish, an author and advocate for people living with Long COVID, wrote a series of tweets on July 30 that said the CDC’s guidelines are no longer clear about the danger airborne transmission of monkeypox.

Parish compared the CDC Yellow Book, which is published to provide health and illness information for international travelers, with the agency’s current Monkeypox FAQ, which contain conflicting guidelines. The Yellow Book, published every two years and most recently in 2020, notes: “Monkeypox is transmitted from person to person primarily via the respiratory tract; Contact with infectious skin lesions or scabs is another, albeit less common, means of human-to-human transmission.”

In contrast, the latest CDC guidelines claim that “direct contact” is the primary mode of transmission. “Respiratory secretions,” a term that is not defined or explained, is listed as a secondary route of transmission at best. In support of their claims, the CDC also writes, “In the current monkeypox outbreak, the virus is spread primarily through close personal contact,” including sex.

The notion that monkeypox is primarily transmitted sexually has been heavily promoted since the monkeypox pandemic began in early May. The World Health Organization (WHO) and virtually every public health agency of the major capitalist governments have promoted the fact that 98 percent of men confirmed to date have been sexually active with other men. In reality, testing was largely limited to this demographic, with almost all non-endemic countries refusing to conduct widespread testing to understand the extent of the disease in the entire population. Significantly, in Africa, where monkeypox is endemic in a number of countries and at least 350 cases have been identified this year, 60 percent of all cases have been in men and 40 percent in women.

Historically, airborne transmission has long been recognized as one of the primary ways monkeypox can be transmitted from person to person, and the science of the virus has not changed overnight during the current unprecedented outbreak. A recent preprint article examining this year’s monkeypox outbreak in the UK showed that “three out of four air samples taken during the study” tested positive for monkeypox, suggesting the disease is airborne. In Nigeria, a country where monkeypox outbreaks are more common, “airborne precautions” have always been present in their monkeypox public health response guidelines. In July, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHC) released a detailed report on monkeypox, noting that monkeypox can be spread through aerosols and recommending that medical staff wear N95 masks for protection.