Opinion: What think about COVID, monkeypox, weather headlines – Des Moines Register

• Dr. Tom Benzoni is an emergency physician, practicing locally. All opinions expressed are exactly that, his opinion.

If you’re wanting the titillation, stimulation or anger-stoking you often get from news headlines, skip to another story. 

Heat alone can be dangerous

Yup, it’s been hot out, until very recently. It is also summer in Iowa. Bart Simpson had it right: No duh! Heat can pose a real danger, though. A couple of weeks ago we had “wet bulb/”real feel” temperatures of about 104 degrees F (40 C). (Short primer: When the wet bulb/”real feel” temperatures are greater than about 95, you cannot shed heat into the environment; instead, the word turns and you begin, effectively, cooling your environment! In other words, you cannot get rid of heat. As body heat rises, brain function decreases.)

What do you do? All the things your mother told you. Hydration is crucial. Shelter, any type, to keep the sun’s rays off your skin. Slow down! (That applies to both driving and working.) Be attentive to those around you. If you see someone who looks drunk, don’t be so sure. Offer assistance (gently). If they do better with shelter, good on you; you’ve added to the positive balance in the world. If they are unable to care for themselves, ask for emergency help to take them to the ER.

The latest on COVID-19

Everyone’s still asking about COVID. BA.5. Or is that BA.6? 7? 

Confused? Well, you should be. But first some background.

All this is new. Or at least most. We’ve had at least four prior encounters with coronaviruses. They are the source of the cough, aches, runny nose that all kids get.

Adults lucky enough to have kids bring the cold home get sick, too, from the same virus the adult had as a kid. The adult doesn’t get as sick as the child because the adult has had this before; it just takes a while for immune forces to be marshalled. The exception: the adult with a faulty immune system (from cancer, illness, age.) These adults are protected from sick children by our social contract. (That’s the stuff your mother taught you: Wash your hands, toss the used Kleenex, don’t visit sick people when you’re sick yourself.)

I mentioned background. Messaging seems confused. Well, it should; when discussing variants, we talk like “Everybody knows.” Rule #1: When “everybody knows” nobody knows. PCR is less than 20 years old; barely able to vote, can’t buy beer.

Scientists will argue fine points, but the real problem is not the technology and timeline, it’s how we talk about it. Recall that we’ve never been able to track a virus entering the human population. Learning how to discuss this in an open fashion, acknowledging what we don’t know, is a practiced skill. This is all new.

So what’s happening with COVID-19? It is becoming “endemic” as commonly understood. (Virologists, epidemiologists, the doctor groups, sit back down. I know this is not what you were taught “endemic” means. This is not about you.) Simply put, it will always be with us, like the other four coronaviruses. So instead of fighting about it (noting a virus doesn’t care), we need to learn to live with it. The virus will do what viruses do, which is find people it can infect so it can reproduce. It will infect 100% of people (OK, 99.9%; sheesh!) It will change less and less as it finds us less hospitable hosts. It might change slightly year to year and may have a seasonal pattern. That’s what viruses do; they don’t care.

Remember that: Diseases don’t care. They just want to live. Viruses use our behaviors to do that.

Monkeypox enters the scene

What a weird name. Monkeypox is named monkeypox because it was discovered in 1958 in a group of captive monkeys. That’s it. There ain’t no more. Otherwise, it has no more to do with monkeys than the Raccoon River. 

The fact that monkeypox has been found primarily in gay men has nothing to do with gay men, it’s just where it is found now in the greatest concentration. That’s because the monkeypox is spread by contact (close, prolonged, which are completely useless descriptors.) Monkeypox is a much better model for what we were talking about early in the COVID pandemic: surfaces, 6-foot rule, etc. That’s because we didn’t understand COVID-19 (2019) as well as we understood monkeypox (1958) and smallpox (time immemorial.) (Trivia: If smallpox is small, what is large pox? Syphilis. Trivia of the day; you’re welcome.)

Monkeypox starts out with “flu-like symptoms.” (That’s the most useless statement I hear outside of politics. It has no definition except what the speaker says; “I feel bad.”) People then develop red spots, like a million other problems. (Pimples, anyone?) However, these are very painful and may be in private areas or areas of contact.

Monkeypox is preventable; don’t be around people. (Monkeys are OK.) It is treatable and there are vaccines around for it. Like COVID.

Dr. Tom Benzoni is an emergency physician, practicing locally. All opinions expressed are exactly that, his opinion.