Tuesday, June 7, 2022

How scared to be about monkeypox

Presented by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living: Tomorrow's conversation, tonight. Know where the news is going next.
Jun 07, 2022 View in browser
 
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By Myah Ward

Presented by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living

A medical laboratory technician picks up from a fridge a bucket with suspected monkeypox samples to be tested.

A medical laboratory technician picks up from a fridge a bucket with suspected monkeypox samples to be tested. | Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images

ELECTION NIGHT — For tonight's primary results, POLITICO has you covered from analysis to elections tallies. You can find live results on our pages for California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. And to fill in the gaps, our campaigns reporters and editors will be breaking it all down in real-time in our live chat, starting at 11 p.m. ET. They'll wrap up the evening results and talk California for an hour.

DON'T PANIC — After our experience with Covid, it's hard not to feel uneasy about monkeypox.

New outbreaks of monkeypox have led to more than 1,000 cases in at least 29 countries. The CDC has said people who travel to places with a lot of cases, work with animals or men who have sex with men are at highest risk for infection. The risk to the public is low, the agency says.

But how low? POLITICO's Daniel Payne and Carmen Paun wrote a helpful Q&A with everything we know about the virus right now. Nightly had a few more questions for our in-house experts, so we talked to Daniel over Slack today. This conversation has been edited.

Should I be freaking out? 

There's no reason to freak out about monkeypox at this point. Concerns about the unexplained spread may seem a lot like what we were hearing about Covid-19 in March 2020, but monkeypox is far less transmissible — and we already have vaccines and treatments at our disposal. Still, public health leaders are concerned about the new outbreaks that are popping up around the world.

Do you feel there's an overreaction because of the Covid pandemic? Or are people responding more to the fact that it's kind of a spooky name?

Experts keep telling me that there's more interest in infectious diseases now than ever because of the pandemic. More people plugged into the subject probably does mean more people are reacting to this news. The name probably freaks people out a bit, too — as does the characteristic symptom, skin lesions.

What are the theories for why it's spreading?

Much of the spread in the new outbreaks seems to be between humans — and that's also true for many endemic cases. Monkeypox mostly spreads through close contact, researchers believe, so this is very different from a virus like Covid-19.

Many cases seem to come from sexual contact, particularly in men who have sex with men. But because transmission is now more widespread than experts thought possible, it's important to emphasize that there are a lot of unanswered questions about how monkeypox spreads.

This isn't a new virus. But is the level of spread, these case numbers we're seeing, unprecedented?

Right — some researchers believe this virus has been around for centuries. And several countries have been treating cases for decades, but because it was mostly contained in endemic countries, in West and Central Africa, there hasn't been much concern about global implications.

That's what's unprecedented here: It's very unusual to see so many outbreaks outside of that region, and experts now believe there is widespread community transmission in new places.

Why is it endemic only in parts of Africa — how does that work?

There are now a lot of new questions about that, given the outbreaks in new places. There are some links to certain animal species that live in endemic regions. It's still unknown exactly which species are responsible for spreading the virus. Not all those animals are primates, by the way — many of them are rodents. It can also just be generally hard to stamp out transmission once it's started.

How do the experts you've talked to rate the government response so far? 

Some immediate government responses so far have made sense, like making large orders for therapeutics and new generations of vaccines for outbreaks.

But there has been a decent amount of criticism that the world did not collectively deal with this problem earlier. We have known this disease is a problem in some countries for decades, and there have been plenty of opportunities to study and develop responses to it. But those opportunities largely weren't taken until now — until wealthier nations in Europe and the Americas found themselves with cases, some researchers pointed out.

And now, as governments are stocking up on vaccines and therapeutics, there are questions of inequities in supplies — especially because most cases are still where they were last year and the year before: West and Central Africa.

What are the biggest unknowns here — as a health reporter who follows this closely, what's your biggest concern?

The big question seems to be: Why is this happening? There's a lot more spread — including in places where there hasn't been much before — and researchers are racing to understand why that is.

There are other questions, too, about how well our current tools will work in this new context and how exactly transmission works — but I think public health officials (and reporters like me) will be focusing on the reasons for the new outbreaks and what measures will be needed to stop them.

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight's author at mward@politico.com or on Twitter at @MyahWard.

 

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Congress: Invest in frontline care workers who protect America's seniors.
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What'd I Miss?

— FDA advisers vote to recommend Novavax Covid-19 vaccine: The Food and Drug Administration's independent vaccine advisory committee voted 21 to 0, with one abstention, to recommend that regulators authorize the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in adults, finding the benefits of its two-dose primary series outweigh the potential risks. Advisers signaled interest in making available a vaccine made with a technology different from the messenger RNA shots that have dominated the U.S. immunization arsenal against the disease, in hopes of convincing unvaccinated holdouts to change their minds. An older vaccine technology formulation could be an option for those who are allergic to components of the mRNA shots.

— Dems' big bet on guns: Senate Democrats acknowledge bipartisan gun safety talks will fall far short of what they want. They're desperate for a deal anyway — and seem willing to take whatever the GOP will give them. Whatever the negotiations among a handful of members in both parties amount to, this much is already assured: There will be no assault weapons ban and no universal background checks. Expanded background checks are a long shot, as is raising the age needed to buy firearms to 21. It's a pragmatic turn, reflecting how differently the guns issue plays among a 50-member Democratic caucus that's tried to attract GOP support to gun legislation for nearly a decade now.

— Pentagon chief heads to an Asia on edge: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin lifted off this morning for a 10-day visit to Asia, with a final stop in Brussels on the tail end of the trip, as Pacific allies are increasingly on edge over China's provocative moves and a record number of North Korean missile launches this year. This is Austin's fourth visit to Asia as defense secretary, and reflects the Biden administration's continued focus on the Pacific even as the war grinds on in Ukraine, a senior defense official told reporters ahead of the visit.

— Jan. 6 committee interviews head of Trump's Secret Service detail: The Jan. 6 select committee has interviewed the top Secret Service agent on then-President Donald Trump's protective detail during the Capitol attack, according to three people familiar with the probe. Robert Engel was the special agent in charge on Jan. 6, 2021, meaning he was responsible for protecting the president from "socks on to socks off" — the whole work day. In that role, he rode from the White House to that day's "Stop the Steal" rally with Trump in the presidential armored car called "The Beast." A Secret Service spokesperson said the agency has cooperated fully with the committee probe.

— Black applicants half as likely as white applicants to get pandemic unemployment benefits in some states: The Government Accountability Office findings are on track with a preliminary report GAO released a year ago , which warned that it had found "potential racial and ethnic disparities" in the administration of jobless benefits.

— Mass. Dems rally to Healey in governor's race: Massachusetts Democrats are facing their best prospects for retaking the governor's office in a decade, and they're not taking any chances. Instead of a crowded primary dominated by liberal policy debates, party activists are overwhelmingly supporting state Attorney General Maura Healey. The progressive all but cleared the field for the open seat with a message that effectively says if it ain't broke, don't fix it. She holds commanding leads in fundraising and polling and secured the party's endorsement for governor at last weekend's state convention with a resounding 71 percent support from delegates. Republicans have held the governor's office in deep blue Massachusetts for most of the past 30 years. Only one Democrat, Deval Patrick, has managed to break that streak.

 

DON'T MISS DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED:  Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today.

 
 
AROUND THE WORLD

YELLEN DOES OIL — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said today that the U.S. is conducting "extremely active" negotiations with European countries to find a way to limit the amount of money flowing to Russia in payments for oil.

Yellen, acknowledging that "it's virtually impossible" for the U.S. to insulate itself from global oil shocks, told the Senate Finance Committee that it was a desirable strategy to implement a cap on prices for Russian oil. She said the U.S. and its allies were still working through the best approach, writes Victoria Guida.

"What we want to do is keep Russian oil flowing into the global market to hold down global prices and try to avoid a spike that causes a worldwide recession and drives up oil prices," she said. "But absolutely, the objective is to limit the revenue going to Russia."

Her comments underscore the difficulty both the Biden administration and its allies face in trying to cripple Russia's military as it continues its invasion of Ukraine without leading to excessive costs for consumers. Soaring prices at the gas pump have already contributed to the highest U.S. inflation in more than four decades.

 

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Nightly Number

$7 million

The amount of money Indivisible, a network of local progressive organizing groups that sprang up during the Trump administration, is spending in the 2022 midterms to help elect Democrats by emphasizing "MAGA extremism," according to plans first shared with POLITICO.

 

STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.

 
 
Parting Words

Matthew McConaughey speaks at the White House daily briefing.

MCCONAUGHEY ON GUNS — Matthew McConaughey, in an emotional speech at the White House today, called for lawmakers to act on bipartisan gun reforms — two weeks after a mass shooting at a school in the actor's Texas hometown left 19 students and two teachers dead, writes Kelly Hooper.

"We need to invest in mental health care, we need safer schools, we need to restrain sensationalized media coverage, we need to restore our family values, we need to restore our American values and we need responsible gun ownership," McConaughey said at the daily White House press briefing.

The actor stressed the need for gun restrictions, such as background checks, red flag laws, raising the minimum age of purchase and a waiting period for guns such as AR-15 rifles. Before his speech, he met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to discuss gun legislation. He also met with President Joe Biden at the White House.

McConaughey recounted stories of some of the victims of the Uvalde shooting whose parents he met when he and his wife, Camila Alves, visited the town last week. He appeared to choke up multiple times throughout the speech as he spoke about the young victims and their dreams.

At one point, McConaughey slammed the podium after he showed the green Converse sneakers one girl wore that were later used to identify her.

"Where do we start?" McConaughey asked. "... We start by making the loss of these lives matter."

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Long term care is facing a historic workforce crisis due to chronic Medicaid underfunding and pandemic burnout that continues to become more dire. It's time to build back our workforce and invest in the frontline heroes who are dedicated to caring for America's seniors.
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