As the US prepares for its presidential election in November, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the recent mpox outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern. The director of WHO, General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Wednesday,
“The emergence of a new clade of mpox, its rapid spread in eastern DRC, and the reporting of cases in several neighboring countries are very worrying. On top of outbreaks of other mpox clades in DRC and other countries in Africa, it’s clear that a coordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives.”
The doctor went on to say, “The current upsurge of mpox in parts of Africa, along with the spread of a new sexually transmissible strain of the monkeypox virus, is an emergency, not only for Africa, but for the entire globe. Mpox, originating in Africa, was neglected there, and later caused a global outbreak in 2022. It is time to act decisively to prevent history from repeating itself.”
However, some feel that if history is indeed repeating itself, it is in the feeling of déjà vu that creeps in when considering another “global threat” that reared up in 2020, just as a US election was in the works.
As TIME Magazine’s national political correspondent Molly Ball pointed out, in early 2020, Donald Trump was roaring ahead with a very successful campaign while Joe Biden was “struggling to stir up crowds.”
Ball goes on to share how the “COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything.” Candidates were forced to cancel conventions, a move which likely had the most negative impact on Trump’s campaign, since Biden wasn’t drawing very large crowds to begin with.
Ballot submission was also drastically changed, making it much easier for cheating to take place, a topic which has become so controversial that it is almost illegal to even discuss it.
Authors Leonardo Baccini, Abel Brodeur, and Stephen Weymouth weighed in on how the 2020 election was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in an article published on PubMed Central.
As the authors point out, the United States was enjoying a booming economy under Trump’s presidency, and he was strongly supported before COVID hit. By November, however, over 60 million had tested positive and 220, 000 people had died around the globe, and the hits to the US economy were blamed on Trump.
The analysis of these authors led them to the conclusion that the pandemic has a “significant negative effect on the Trump vote share in the 2020 presidential election in comparison to 2016.
They found that the negative impact of the pandemic was the strongest in those states where voters were not forced to stay at home, in the states where Trump won in 2016, and in swing states and urban counties. They also state that if there had been just 5 percent fewer cases of COVID-19, Trump “would have won Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin.”
So, is America in for a repeat of 2020 with the new mpox crisis? The Associated Press is already insinuating that the virus could “spill across international borders,” but admit that the officials say the threat to the public is considered to be “very low.” So far, the bulk of the outbreak is contained to Africa, where 524 people have died out of around 14,000 cases this year.
Mpox is spread through close contact with someone who is infected, such as sexual contact, exchanges of bodily fluids, or skin-to-skin touches on broken skin. Contact with infected animals or infected materials are also ways to spread mpox.
A movement has already begun among those who find it suspicious that a health emergency is being announced by WHO just before another election. A writer at Newsweek calls it the “Do Not Comply” movement, and makes it clear that they disagree with Trump supporters who express legitimate concerns.
“MAGA,” as they are called, wonders whether voters will be forced to once again watch as governments lock down citizens and America’s electoral process is disrupted for a virus that has very low (0.2% to 5%) fatality rate. What do you think? Will an mpox pandemic interrupt the 2024 election? Tell us in the comments!
