Monkeypox: Thanks to public health and a little luck, this disease didn’t become a pandemic

Why Monkeypox Wasn’t Another COVID-19 Thanks to public health and a little luck, this disease didn’t become a pandemic. Maggie Koerth FiveThirtyEight

... we are watching a disease decline, with cautious optimism. Two weeks ago, the World Health Organization announced that monkeypox cases in Europe had fallen so fast, the outbreak could be eliminated there. And while the U.S. recently experienced its first monkeypox death, cases here have fallen by 40 percent between the middle and end of August. In other words, it’s too early to declare victory and dust off our hands, but the situation is generally improving.

This news shows that public health officials — and the public itself — got some important stuff right in combating this serious illness. But monkeypox is also a reminder that humans will encounter many potentially dangerous new diseases. COVID wasn’t the first, or the last. What stops most diseases from becoming pandemics is as much about luck as it is about human intervention.

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