There are many significant differences in how COVID-19 and mpox, formerly monkeypox, which the World Health Organization declared as a global health emergency this week, are transmitted, Custom Care internist Dr. Frank Contacessa told Newsmax Friday.
"The big difference here is the mode of transmission," Contacessa said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "COVID was an airborne illness, where you could just be in the same room with somebody or just in close proximity for a short period of time."
But mpox is spread through close physical contact or through contact with body fluids, he said.
"It's generally considered a sexually transmitted disease, although close contact with patients can spread it," Contacessa added. "I don't think we're going to be looking at the same kind of pandemic that COVID caused unless the virus changed or has been altered to spread more quickly and easily between humans by natural or unnatural means."
The WHO on Wednesday declared mpox outbreaks in Congo and other locations in Africa as a global emergency, with a new form of the virus spreading and cases being confirmed among children in adults in more than a dozen countries.
The announcement came after the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this week that the outbreaks constituted a public health emergency and that more than 500 deaths were reported. The agency has called for international help to stem the spread of the virus.
Contacessa said he could see many similarities between the warnings on mpox and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the diseases don't spread in the same ways.
"We're not talking about a high mortality illness here," he said. "COVID across the board in 2020 had a 0.4% mortality, even though it seemed like it was much worse.
"The same is true with mpox. It's hard to nail down a specific mortality rate, and I've been scouring data to try to find something like that, but it's hard to collect data from these African countries."
Meanwhile, Contecessa, who does not recommend COVID-19 vaccinations for his patients, said he thinks any mass vaccination campaign for mpox should be looked at carefully and people should think twice before getting shots.
"If you want to target the high-risk populations, we can talk about that. But if somebody considers widespread vaccines for this disease, I would caution against that," he said.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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