Got Pox?

New Virus, New Story. Nurse Sickels reassures that the Monkey Pox is not a concern to Heritage.

By Hari Emani

Paranoia sweeps across social media platforms as people start panicking over another new, mysterious virus being introduced to the rest of the world, so soon after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The sudden and unexpected surge of monkeypox started in April and has caused a lot of panic on social media due to people making misinformed assumptions.
Despite the chaos on the internet, Nurse Sickles reassured the school that monkeypox is not a problem, at least here in Collin County.
Monkeypox comes from the same family of viruses as smallpox but is not nearly as fatal as COVID-19. According to the CDC, it is rare and difficult to contract. If contracted, symptoms are similar to the flu, and usually include fever, exhaustion, bodily aching and the infamous rash.
The rash has been a big reason for anxiety and misinformation since many people have mistaken regular pimples and blemishes for monkeypox.
“The rash, it’s rarely fatal, it starts on the face, and it goes down,” Sickles said. “When it all scabs in, and everything is gone is when you’re not contagious.”
Spreading only through contact with bodily fluids, monkeypox is much harder to contract than COVID-19, which is an airborne virus, making it easier to avoid if you practice proper hygiene.
“It’s transmissible through bodily fluids, like close contact with skin secretions,” Sickles said. “As of now, it’s been more of a sexually transmitted disease ​so if you really practice safe sex it’ll be good. I would tell you to wash your hands a lot and use an alcohol based sanitizer, especially before eating. Avoid close contact with people who have a rash that looks like monkeypox, don’t share utensils, don’t share bedding, that kind of thing.”
Since the outbreak, Tik Tok has been filled with videos of people panicking over blemishes, pimples, and other skin imperfections, mistaking it for the monkey pox rash.
Tik Tok user @daejjj posted a video of herself on August 1 where she records herself crying in her car, her face puffy and red as her voice shakes with anxiety, before her doctor’s appointment because she thinks she has monkeypox as she points to two blemishes on her skin. In a later video she posted on August 5 on a different account, confirming that she does not have monkeypox.
However, on our campus, monkeypox remains unproblematic, with only 2 reported cases of monkeypox in all of Collin County. Students at Heritage remain unconcerned as well.
“I’m not that worried about it. Like even if I get monkeypox, it’s whatever,” sophomore Nitya Rao said.
While students at our school can rest easy, you can still be educated and stay vigilant. You can stay updated on monkeypox at the CDC’s website: https://www.cdc.gov/.

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