Again?

 Do you remember the end of 2019, the beginning of 2020?

The news of this new virus in China, and the draconian measures the government was taking to tackle the spread of the virus.

I watched the news as the epidemic spread throughout China, and then onto other countries.

I really wasn't that worried. I live in a small city in the Japanese countryside. We don't get that many tourists here, nobody to bring the virus to our doorstep.

I watched as the first cases were recorded in Europe and the first known case was seen in the UK.  The words epidemic and pandemic became part of the vocabulary I had to teach to my older students. 

Once the pandemic spread through the UK I worried for my family there. The news was saying that the elderly were particularly vulnerable. My Dad is in his 80s, was he going to be okay?

I was amazed at how people followed the rules and stayed home, how life stopped. A doctor on the way to work took a video of his root through some of the busiest streets in London, they were deserted! It was eerie how quiet it was.

In the middle of January, Japan had its first case. I still wasn't worried.

In March schools closed and we had to close for a while too. But there were no cases reported in our small city or the neighboring cities. 

I started to notice that plastic partitions were going up in stores. The first one I noticed was in a convenience store. That surprised me, had the virus come here?

A couple of weeks after that the supermarket in the next city had a sign on their butchers counter. It said that you couldn't ask for a kilo of meat to be divided into two 500-gram packs as it takes time and they want the customers to move through the area fast. I actually cried, this is when COVID-19 became real to me. Before that point, I felt that it was happening in other places but not near where I live.

I bought alcohol, masks, and vitamin D.  We washed our hands, face and gargled when we came in from shopping or work.  I tried to cut down on how often I went shopping and the time in the shops.

Every fever we got was monitored, and every cough was checked. I tried to be rational about it but the number of deaths scared me. Hannah has weak lungs because she was born premature, Mikey and Christopher have allergies that make the respiratory system weak. I wasn't that healthy at that time. David was okay. 

We caught it in 2021, I think!! A milder form that attacked the throat but not the lungs!

I was glad when the pandemic was over.  For me not having to wear masks everywhere was a sign that it had run its course.

Why am I writing this?

Monkeypox (Mpox). 

Again the news is reporting about a new disease that is starting to spread around the world. The WHO has declared it a global health emergency. 

This disease, which is related to smallpox, started in Africa. It's a zoonotic disease, which means that it can be transmitted from animals to people.  Hunters or people dealing with animal carcasses can be exposed to it. It's transmitted by skin touch or on surfaces, if you use a towel of an infected person you could get infected. It can be transmitted by air droplets but that is less likely!

There have been a few cases in Japan.  

I'm wondering if this is going to be another pandemic and if it's going to be on the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic. Or is it a case of a slow news day?

How do we protect ourselves and our loved ones?

Are there vaccines? Do we need them? How deadly is this Mpox? I know that news organizations choose the worst photos for dramatic effect but some of the photos are awful.

We are still dealing Covid here. We had it in June, more like a bad flu.  Miserable but pain killers for fever and aches and pains, a few days in bed and good healthy food cured us.   A lot of our students have had it or somebody in their family got sick. I think Covid is going to be like the flu and cold virus, always there!

I'm trying to balance being aware of Mpox but not freaking out!  We live in a time of international travel. People travel to exotic locations and interact with the local people and wildlife, I think it's normal that viruses are brought back.   

We should educate people about the transmission of diseases, the other choice is to stop people from traveling!

Please stay safe. Keep an eye on your local news, and educate yourself on the symptoms. There isn't much else we can do. I hope that scientists and doctors can find a way to manage this without the extreme measures that were in place 4 years ago.

Got to end with cuteness!!

Frodo and Sam this morning

Playing with my cats helps me to deal with the stresses that get thrown at me. Between diseases that only existed in far-off countries, to the possibility of a massive earthquake or WW3, and my personal stress dealing with moving I am at a 1000% stress level. But the cats are so calm, they just chill out. A lesson to be learned there.