Monkeypox keeps finding its way onto my timelines — photos, videos, TikToks and livestreams from people who have contracted it raising awareness of what a positive case of this viral disease looks like. Like a car wreck in a traffic jam, I can't look away. Monkeypox looks painful, and the screen makes it feel close. It's good if folks who have been diagnosed have found a positive way to deal with it, and yet even the idea of another viral outbreak terrifies me. This on top of what feels like a dozen strands of COVID still floating around, and polio. Who knew polio could come back?
My family tries to consider the relative dangers of each of these plagues in the most responsible ways we can — we vaccinate, we mask, we distance — as we fight for normalcy.
