Health
Survey: About 20% of Americans fear they’ll soon get monkeypox due to misinformation
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- A recent Annenberg survey found that 1 in 5 Americans worry that they’ll contract monkeypox in the next three months.
- It is clear that most people do not fully understand how one can get infected by the virus.
- Mixed information about COVID-19 during its early days, misinformation, and conspiracy theories are the factors that heighten the worry.
One in 5 Americans (about 20%) is worried they’ll contract monkeypox in the next three months, according to a new survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Clearly, the public’s understanding of the virus is very little.
Public health officials say the monkeypox outbreaks are in the early stages in the U.S. and not nearly as dangerous as early COVID-19 outbreaks were. However, similar to the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, health officials face challenges like educating people about a virus they are not familiar with and launching vaccination efforts.
Nearly 50% of the survey responders say they are unsure whether monkeypox is less contagious than COVID-19. About 69% correctly identified the way monkeypox usually spreads, which is through close contact with an infected individual.
Two-thirds don’t know there’s a vaccine against monkeypox or aren’t sure if it exists. (
On Thursday, the Biden administration announced that it’s allocating another 786,000 doses of vaccine for monkeypox in addition to the more than 340,000 it already distributed earlier this July.
Women are more worried than men about contracting monkeypox, even though it has already been widely reported that the majority of U.S. cases have been among men.
Mixed messaging and misinformation about COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic affect the public’s sentiment on monkeypox, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg center, said.
“There is some suspicion scientists don’t know what they know, so that translates to higher worry,” Jamieson told Axios.
Misinformation and conspiracy theories are also factors that increase the concerns.
Twelve percent of respondents in the survey said they believe monkeypox was probably or definitely created in a laboratory; while 21% said they were unsure whether it was caused by exposure to a 5G signal.
Some think the virus is a sexually transmitted disease due to information that it has so far spread primarily among men who have sex with men.
Perceptions of risk could change if monkeypox gets transmitted in a different way, or if it continues to affect children.
“If kids get it and there’s been no contact with individuals at risk, then you have a completely different situation than you have now,” Jamieson said.
Source: Axios
JimnEm
July 30, 2022 at 8:45 pm
Hi Folks; I’ve been married to the same woman for 54 years. Have never had HIV/AIDS, Monkey-Pox, or any STD. Could it be because Em and I have never cheated on each other? Yeah, we think that’s why.
CandygramForMongo
July 31, 2022 at 6:39 am
One in 5 must be gay?????
WardMD
August 1, 2022 at 6:58 pm
Can (should) we blame the (so-called) “mainstream” media and the CDC and the WHO?
My understanding that there are something like 5,000 cases of PervertPox (aka MonkeyPox) in the USA. Out of a population of approximately 336,997,624 people, that is approximately 0.001483689985897%!
Now ANYONE with ANY disease is a bad thing, but COME ON! 0.001483689985897% is hardly something to get so worked up about!
Michael Valgos
August 2, 2022 at 3:56 am
Can’t anyone tell us the truth anymore When we were first alerted to the Monkey Pox virus and they relied on the Health director for South Africa and she didn’t say anything like this report She said it is pretty much painless other than iching If you have had a Small Pox vaccination you should not have a problem You need to know what the symptoms are She went on to say how it can spread I didn’t listen to the entire clip She also stated that it is not that easy to contract nothing like the commie virus So you saw that they got in there vaccines It is all a game with us as the play figures Fauci and his group high CDC and FDA people received huge checks from the Pharma people Fauci supposedly received around 400000 dollars So it is in their interest to push lies and scare tactics on the citizens This is all to line all of the big Pharma NIH CDC FDC and we have people with some major problems directly related to the virus This was all bullshit You should not stay inside with the virus because it can linger and it is like shit for brains Biden You have to get outside get fresh air and sunshine It is very important Why do you think Florida did so well They were living normal lives all while being called all sorts of this that were all lies of course Biden too He always is talking shit Now again about President Trump I guess he thinks it will help get him kicked off the 2024 ballot I don’t think Biden would like that to happen We have been sold out to the highest bidder The Biden boys have allowed CCP to purchase a large acreage next to one of our missile base Biden and his clan have cashed the checks said to be over 35 million Time for people to go to jail and kick CCP out of our country Hey we can give up the Embassy there who cares about the piece of shit CCP