Monkeypox is relatively hard to catch and rarely kills, but infection can be a miserable experience. In addition to fever, chills, muscle aches, and exhaustion, people infected with monkeypox often have to endure painful rashes and lesions that can last up to a month and spread the disease to others.
By comparison, COVID-19, while also relatively rarely fatal and frequently mild, was contagious enough that it killed large numbers of people in vulnerable groups. But monkeypox's less lethal impact does not explain why federal health officials have responded to the virus with such ineptitude, especially after their experience with disastrous COVID-19 missteps.
