{"id":2155,"date":"2022-05-28T16:12:13","date_gmt":"2022-05-28T17:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/?p=2155"},"modified":"2022-05-30T14:39:17","modified_gmt":"2022-05-30T15:39:17","slug":"outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/2022\/05\/28\/outbreak\/","title":{"rendered":"Outbreak!"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the 6th<\/sup> of May this year a new disease outbreak was confirmed, curiously only in Western nations. Why that is curious is because monkeypox \u2013 our newest \u2018dreaded disease\u2019 \u2013 is endemic in Africa. It has been endemic in Africa for ages, literally. So, why the alarm bells now, and why are we seeing it only in the West, at least at the moment? Oh, and it also seems to be found among a certain social group. And, in case that is not enough, there are certain folks already trying to pin this outbreak on a certain \u2018unfriendly\u2019 nation. This is going to be more fun than a barrel of monkeys! (not)<\/span><\/p>\n

OK, so we should probably begin with what exactly monkeypox is before we get too excited about it. Seriously, the conflict in Ukraine is<\/em> exciting (to the media) but it appears to be losing its luster as Russia looks to be on the road to victory there. And then there is inflation, food shortages, high energy prices \u2013 need we go on? Is all this exciting or interesting enough? Why, then, do we have to be concerned with a few cases of a disease with which African peoples have been dealing since the origins of the human species? Well, we don\u2019t really \u2013 and that is the point.<\/span><\/p>\n

Monkeypox is a viral infection, one of many mammalian orthopox viruses, of which cowpox and smallpox are members. Monkeypox is not a serious disease for most people, on par with chickenpox. One can<\/em> die from it, of course, but that normally does not occur with proper medical treatment. One can die from almost any disease for that matter, if conditions are right. From our favorite Wikipedia<\/a><\/span>, we have the following information about monkeypox:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSymptoms<\/a><\/span> begin with fever, headache, muscle pains, swollen lymph nodes, and feeling tired. This is followed by a rash that forms blisters and crusts over. The time from exposure to onset of symptoms is usually 7 to 14 days. The duration of symptoms is typically two to four weeks. Cases <\/strong>may be severe<\/a><\/span>, especially in children, pregnant women or people with supressed immune systems<\/strong>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bolding added. So far, so good. We have a few guidelines for avoiding severe infections. Continuing:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMonkeypox may be spread from handling bushmeat<\/a><\/span> [Hunters and survivalists, beware!], an animal bite or scratch, body fluids<\/strong>, contaminated objects, or close contact with an infected person [large-droplet aerosol transmission]. The virus normally circulates among certain rodents.[better not to eat rodents] Diagnosis can be confirmed by testing a lesion<\/a><\/span> for the virus’s DNA. The disease can appear similar to chickenpox<\/a><\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The bolded bit will be important in a bit. Then, after reading all this lovely material, there is this:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe smallpox vaccine can prevent infection with 85% effectiveness<\/strong>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Smallpox is<\/em> a deadly disease<\/span><\/a>, with about a 30% death rate, but it was eliminated in the world in the late 1970s. Historically, the disease led to the very first vaccination against a communicable disease, developed by Edward Jenner in 1798 from the cowpox virus. If you were born before 1980 you were probably vaccinated against smallpox. Many of us past a certain age carry the characteristic scar on the upper arm from the vaccine.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, there are already-developed vaccines and treatments effective against monkeypox. As far as where one can find this disease<\/a><\/span>, there is the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to monkeys, the virus is found in Gambian pouched rats (Cricetomys gambianus) [a very interesting and useful little guy<\/a><\/span>], dormice (Graphiurus spp.) [not useful] and African squirrels (Heliosciurus, and Funisciurus) [cute, but not normally found in the West]. The use of these animals as food may be an important source of transmission to humans. No specific reservoir for monkeypox has been found. Monkeys are not a main reservoir, contrary to the name<\/strong>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The current outbreak of monkeypox in the West began in the UK. How embarrassing! It is<\/em> an embarrassing disease, more than being serious. What they are calling an outbreak is a technicality, in that a single case in a country where a disease is not endemic constitutes an outbreak. But \u201cOutbreak!\u201d is a real headline grabber. Currently it has been recorded in 19 countries outside Africa, all in the West It has about the same level of seriousness as another disease of recent interest. I don\u2019t think we need to name it. We are all well familiar with it now and many of us have had it.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the background preceding, why is the media in the West already starting to harp on this? OK, it makes for an interesting story, but as we know now, media thrives on clicks and ratings. The more sensational a story is, the more exposure and thus higher ratings. African doctors are already crying foul<\/a><\/span> over the Western media coverage of the disease, citing double standards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central Africa Republic have been dealing with monkeypox for years, and quite successfully, with nary a mention of the virus in Western media. The Africans also complain the pictures of the disease show only black people, citing stigma. Where are the pics of whites with monkeypox? Surely a few Europeans in Africa, as in missionaries and colonizers over the years would have contracted the virus.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are several things to note here. Firstly, the cases in Western nations all appeared at the same time, like within a few days, across three continents. That is not normally possible, especially since it has been localized in Africa for many centuries. Why now, all of a sudden, and in the West? Such an occurrence would go to suggest either a single super-spreader event at which the Westerners were in attendance and then carried to the nations where the infection has been noted, or it has somehow been seeded in Western countries, as in a bio-weapon, which would be convenient for the propaganda value. Keep in mind, the disease has about the same mortality and severity as chickenpox, and there are already-existing treatments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Secondly, this comes at a time when we have a kind of perfect storm of events \u2013 the cash drain from the Russia-NATO war, the baby formula scam and scandal in the US, the manufactured energy shortages (Come on \u2013 there is plenty of oil and gas to go around. This is a policy failure, not a shortage.), pandemic fatigue, resource shortages and so forth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thirdly, the Western monkeypox outbreak comes after the uncovering of clandestine American bio-labs in Ukraine as a result of the Russian SMO. The Americans have been busy trying to cover it up and transfer blame, to no avail. The world outside the West is naturally very interested in what went on in those labs and the information is being made public by the Russians. This is actually what led Lloyd Austin to call Sergei Shoigu, \u2018suggesting\u2019 a ceasefire in Ukraine. Washington was panicking over disclosure of what went on in those labs, with the call being placed the day after the Russians had stated they were going to make their findings public. The call happened on 14 May.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then, a rather interesting item appeared in a few press releases — there are four American bio-labs in Nigeria<\/span><\/a> in the area where monkeypox cases have been reported. Some of the documents found by the Russians in the Ukrainian bio-labs detailed emergency response to outbreaks of smallpox, remembering the disease had been eradicated from the world decades ago and that the smallpox vaccine protects against monkeypox. The West African strain of the monkeypox pathogen originated from Nigeria, the strain that has affected the West<\/span><\/a>. Is this coincidence? Who knows? There is a doctor tweeting about it<\/span><\/a><\/span>, and the ‘fact checkers’ (whoever they are) are already busy debunking the various theories<\/span><\/a>. The same ‘fact checkers’ also claim there are no American bio-labs in Ukraine. The Russians affirm otherwise and have called for a WHO investigation into the monkeypox matter. Draw your own conclusions. But at the moment we are told the cases in the West are not serious and there is no cause for alarm, that its spread is localized.<\/span><\/p>\n

And finally, there is the one item that has lit up the independent media sphere \u2013 the gaming of a deadly global monkeypox pandemic<\/em> by an international biosecurity conference<\/a><\/span> in Munich a year ago, which forecast a pandemic of an \u2018unusual strain of monkeypox virus\u2019, starting in mid-May of this year. Funny about that. Remember, the coronavirus pandemic started as a small number of cases in China and Italy. The report on the monkeypox gaming can be read here:<\/span><\/p>\n

Strengthening Global Systems to Prevent and Respond to High-Consequence Biological Threats:\u00a0Results from the 2021 Tabletop Exercise Conducted in Partnership with the Munich Security Conference<\/em><\/a><\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This Tabletop exercise forecast 270 million deaths in a pandemic that first emerged in the fictional nation of Brinia over the course of 18 months. Are we suspicious yet? The Western powers are already starting the ball rolling on trying to blame the current outbreak of a few cases on the Russians. Of course, this comes first out of the UK<\/a><\/span>, which is well known for its Russophobia. Well, neither China nor Russia have clandestine bio-labs worldwide, at least to my knowledge. There were many people who tried to blame the COVID pandemic on China, and still do.<\/span><\/p>\n

And now we have rags like The Daily Beast<\/em> saying monkeypox could potentially present a serious problem due to a particular twist<\/a><\/span>. Oh, and that \u2018certain social group\u2019 mentioned at the top of this post who are susceptible? \u2013 that would be gay men. Remember when the other \u2018gay\u2019 disease made the headlines \u2013 HIV\/AIDS? I remember the stigma around that when it first made the news. And that was well before \u2018woke\u2019 culture. Well, it turns out anyone can contract AIDS. That supposedly came from monkeys, too<\/a><\/span>, so the scientists thought at the start. So far, AIDS has killed over 35 million people worldwide since the early \u201880s.<\/span><\/p>\n

But since this is an astrological blog, is there an astrological indication for the confirmation of the outbreak of monkeypox in the West? The chart for 6 May 2022 (noon chart) is below (bigger<\/a><\/span>):<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

The immediate standout is the Sun\/Uranus conjunction, showing a new situation, a human interest story, something perhaps revolutionary and of scientific interest, and finally being broadcast over the airwaves (Uranus). The conjunction is sextile to Mars and probably to the Moon, giving the announcement energy and impact. But, being a public service announcement we have to look at Mercury, especially the midpoints.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mercury (communication) is involved in the following midpoints:<\/span><\/p>\n

Mars\/Node<\/strong>: One’s personal attitude towards the community in general<\/em>, the inclination to form associations with others to serve one’s own ends, intended cooperation or collaboration<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Uranus\/Neptune<\/strong>: A peculiar imagination<\/em>, plans without the possibility of realisation<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Sun\/Neptune<\/strong>: False logic<\/em> or speech defect: – Mental disturbances, nerve-weakness, deceptions or illusions<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mars\/Saturn<\/strong>: Thoughts on separation, illness<\/em>, death or the next world beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

The italicized phrases are of the most interest to us here, especially those connected with Neptune. The Mars\/Saturn midpoint is also key here, too \u2013 news of an illness. With these in mind, there are two main points to take away from this chart: 1) an effort to distract the public with something new and engaging and 2) a deception, or the illusion of something serious being conveyed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then of a curious note of interest, the Sun is conjunct the asteroid Eros (physical love\/sex) and square the asteroid Cupido (erotic love) \u2013 hence the connection between monkeypox (at least regarding this announcement) and sex (gay men). That said, we have the following, taking it with a grain of salt<\/a><\/span>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn an interview with The Associated Press, Dr. David Heymann, who formerly headed WHO\u2019s emergencies department, said the leading theory to explain the spread of the disease was sexual transmission among gay and bisexual men at two raves held in Spain and Belgium<\/strong>. Monkeypox has not previously triggered widespread outbreaks beyond Africa, where it is endemic in animals. \u201cWe know monkeypox can spread when there is close contact with the lesions of someone who is infected, and it looks like sexual contact has now amplified that transmission,\u201d said Heymann.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Unless they have done contact tracing and profiling with this outbreak, how would these guys know the epicenters of this outbreak were rave parties? We aren\u2019t given any further information. Patient confidentiality, perhaps?<\/span><\/p>\n

In conclusion, I am not going to monkey around with this one, as there is clearly some monkey business going on here (no offense to monkeys) with the media coverage and the timing of what is only a very limited number of cases at the moment. For one, I would be very suspicious of any further hyping of monkeypox. I was born in a Year of the Monkey, but this story smells of fish. It offends our sensibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Featured pic from The Daily Beast<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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On the 6th of May this year a new disease outbreak was confirmed, curiously only in Western nations. Why that is curious is because monkeypox \u2013 our newest \u2018dreaded disease\u2019 \u2013 is endemic in Africa. It has been endemic in Africa for ages, literally. So, why the alarm bells now, and why are we seeing … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Outbreak!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,563,565,561,564,566,562],"class_list":["post-2155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-astrology","tag-bio-labs","tag-gays","tag-monkeypox","tag-nigeria","tag-rave-parties","tag-the-west"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2155"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2163,"href":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2155\/revisions\/2163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}