Monkeypox Outbreaks in Autumn: Schools and Colleges Prepare

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

Elementary schools and universities have been preparing for potential monkeypox outbreaks as the summer closes and the autumn sessions near.

Though monkeypox has spread almost exclusively among men who have sex with men (14,000 confirmed cases in the United States), health officials fear that the virus will spread beyond the LGBTQ community and into the general population, with elementary school and college students being the most vulnerable. Per the Hill:

Given that epidemiologists and public health officials are observing and learning in real-time, if transmission can occur from more casual physical contact, then the virus is ripe to spread into the general population. Children, young people in college and school are among the most at-risk subpopulations. Young children and the immunosuppressed remain at the highest risk of untoward outcomes.

Young children have a natural propensity to play and touch each other. One child can spread monkeypox to other children and teachers if they are infected. These children often engage in playful wrestling and other physical contact. These activities are part of our DNA. It is futile to try to prevent or limit such contact.

Given the limited supply and specific focus on the LGBTQ community, vaccinating such populations against monkeypox would be nearly impossible at this point, leading various school districts and colleges to develop their own plan. Just last week, Penn State released its own monkeypox guidance, in which it stressed that “anybody is at risk for monkeypox.”

“Anybody is at risk for monkeypox,” says the Penn State guidelines. We strongly urge students to research monkeypox, and to take precautions to avoid it. The virus monkeypox spreads primarily through close contact. Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease (STI) and anyone can get it, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. The most common symptoms of monkeypox include fever, rash, and swollen lymph nodes.”

The University of Delaware and Drexel University released their own guidelines.

LGBTQ student leaders mostly feared the preparation for monkeypox could increase stigma and encouraged schools to “address the virus head-on, similar to how they responded to COVID, while acknowledging the viruses are vastly different” in order to decrease stigma, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“I think a lot of the concern is less so about the virus itself and more about the homophobic moral panic that is beginning,” said Eitan Runyan, president of the Temple University Queer Student Union.

Muggs Leone, a student employee of Penn State’s Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity, echoed Runyan’s fears. He said, “I haven’t heard much about the physical safety.”

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