Germany Closes School over MPox Scare

As we resolutely refuse to learn anything from the Covid mess, we will make the same mistakes once again, as reporting from Northrhine-Westphalia indicates

Pox the monkey, I yelled out when I saw the below-reproduced reporting about what happens when there are no consequences: another example of the ‘definition’ of insanity attributed to Albert Einstein:

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

As Germany prepares for a federal ‘snap’ election to take place in mid-February (as we’re told), absurdities abound, which incl. the current Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) whose faction is polling in the low double-digits (in the fourth spot), complaining that he was not invited to participate in a TV ‘duel’. Who else wasn’t invited? Well, Alice Weidel, leader of AfD (currently polling second), and while Mr. Habeck—a pathological liar—is quite mad at this, I’m left scratching my head as to where and when he had lost his marbles…but I digress.

The below piece is from the Berliner Zeitung, and while I, as always, provide a translated version, with emphases and [snark] added, please note that I’m relying on quite a few simian-themed curses here.

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Monkeypox: First School Closure in Germany

A school in Northrhine-Westphalia has been closed due to a monkeypox infection. The children are receiving digital lessons.

Via the Berliner Zeitung, 16 Dec. 2024 [source]

Following the infection of two children with the new variant of the Mpox virus, a school near Cologne has been closed as a precautionary measure [this isn’t going to end well]. The pupils at a special school in Rösrath in North Rhine-Westphalia will receive remote instruction from now until Friday, the Rheinisch-Bergisch district announced, according to the Bild newspaper. In consultation with the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) [remember that they take orders from politicos™ and monkey with the data], the health authority in the Rheinisch-Bergisch district had implemented further measures [which may be…?] and searched for possible contact persons [ah, contact-tracing, I’ve missed you].

In Germany, an infection acquired abroad with the new Mpox variant clade 1b has been detected for the second time. A family from the Rheinisch-Bergisch district in North Rhine-Westphalia is affected, as the district administration in Bergisch Gladbach announced on Monday. One family member had presumably contracted the disease while travelling to Africa, and three other family members had subsequently fallen ill. Among them were two children [so, here’s the infection: dude travels to Africa, presumably gets infected, travels back to Germany and infects his family members: I hope we now all get mandated track & trace apps on our phones].

In October, an infection with the new Mpox variant clade Ib was detected for the first time in a man in Cologne after he returned from a trip to Africa, according to the authorities [oh, that wasn’t the first time essentially the same has happened]. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Monday, there have been no further cases in Germany in the meantime [two ‘cases’ of infection is all that’s needed now: how are these people? I mean, are they o.k., sick, terminally ill? That would be nice to know…].

The risk situation for the general population is still considered to be ‘low’, the institute responsible for combating infectious diseases in Germany explained in Berlin on Monday [wonderful, that means we can continue to get harassed and gaslit ‘bout Covid, I suppose]: ‘Close physical contact is required for the transmission of Mpox.’ [what kind of monkey business were these two men who travelled to Africa engaging in?] The RKI is continuing to monitor the situation closely and will adjust its assessments on an ongoing basis [please do, but don’t forget to let politicos™ issue orders, if necessary].

Mpox is not a new disease, it has been known since the end of the 1950s [has there ever been a preventative school closure due to Mpox? Keep this in mind, I’ll address it below]. It causes fever, muscle pain, and smallpox-like pustules on the skin. According to the authorities, most cases are mild. However, the new clade 1b variant, which is considered more aggressive and dangerous, has been spreading massively on the African continent for several months [o.k., but it is more contagious and/or deadly?].

It was only around three weeks ago that the World Health Organisation reconfirmed the highest alert level it had activated in August due to the tense situation in Africa [of course they would, isn’t it?]. According to this, the spread of clade 1b is a ‘public health emergency of international concern’. The countries most recently affected were Kenya, Burundi, and Nigeria [ah, the PHEIC—I’ve discussed it before, and it’s not what it seems as the WHO is, once again, monkeying with the data conflating all MPox ‘cases’ (however ill-defined) since 2022 with the 2024 outbreak to uphold this charade].

There are authorised vaccinations against Mpox, which are also possible after infection [ha, how awesome is this: in case you’re wondering, the word you’re looking for is ‘natural immunity’, with perhaps ‘cross-immunity’ being a close second]. The disease used to be known as monkeypox. Before the spread of the new variant, other forms such as clade IIb were already circulating. This variant has been spreading in a worldwide wave of infection since mid-2022 and has also reached Germany. According to the RKI, sporadic infections with IIb continue to be recorded to this day, but there have been no deaths to date [note that the Berliner Zeitung also adds some ‘clarification’, but it badly falls short of reporting accurately].

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Intermission: Pox the Monkey

At this point, we’ll revisit the notion of preventative school closures, and since even I shall go with the times, I asked Elon Musk’s Grok ‘AI’ about this:

Note the ‘answer’ of this ‘A.I.’ to my question: it addresses the question by pointing to—that ‘school closure’ discussed above. Hence…

Ah, another ‘school closure’ was found by the ‘A.I.’, and it concerned a school class in the UK in July 2022. But, alas, a class shut-down doesn’t make a school closure, hence…

There we have it. What transpires in Germany right now is a notable first. Finally, ze Germans are world-leaders in…well, I’d move: facepalming themselves once more.

Oh, lest we forget, let’s ask ‘the experts™’ about the efficacy of such measures, and we get even more hilarious answers, courtesy of a Today piece from mid-August 2022:

Will mpox cause another lockdown?

When asked about the potential for mpox lockdowns, [Dr. Daniel] Kuritzkes [chief of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School] says ‘there would be absolutely no reason to take that kind of measure.’

Answering the same question, [Anne] Rimoin [Ph.D., professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, Fielding School of Public Health] says: ‘The answer is no. Mpox is not new, like COVID. This is a known virus with tools already available to be able to control it, including vaccines. ... We’ve already brought a global outbreak of (mpox) under control in 2022.’

A top WHO official expressed similar sentiments in an Aug. 20 post on X. ‘Mpox is not the new COVID’, regardless of whether it’s clade I or clade II, Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said.

So, ‘the experts™ agree that MPox isn’t Covid, hence it’s reasonable to close down an entire school in Germany due to possibility of Mpox spreading.

Even the Biden-era CDC says they have ‘no plans to close schools in the event of mpox outbreak’. This was in August 2024.

You cannot make this up.

Local News Often Knows More

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Following Infection of Children, School in Rösrath Closed as a Precautionary Measure due to Mpox Virus

Via the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, 16 Dec. 2024 [source]

The public health department of the Rheinisch-Bergisch district closed the LVR school at Königsforst in Rösrath by general decree [orig. Allgemeinverfügung] on Monday. The closure is initially valid until 6 January, according to a public announcement by the health authority. This is the day on which the Christmas holidays end in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The reason for the closure is the occurrence of four cases of Mpox. School premises will remain closed in order to prevent close contact between pupils [what is meant by ‘close contact’?] and thus any further possible spread of Mpox. As a precautionary measure, the pupils would be ‘taught remotely from now until Friday’ [the begin of the Christmas holidays], the Bergisch Gladbach district administration announced in the afternoon, without naming the school.

Parents Were Informed About School Slosure

The closure is a preventative measure. Over the weekend, a [as in: one] case of Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, of the latest variant clade 1b was initially confirmed in a family in the Rheinisch-Bergisch district. ‘The parents or guardians are being or have been informed of the measure by the school management’, the district continued.

The disease was presumably acquired by a family member travelling in close contact with the local population in Africa. Three other family members, including two children, have now also been confirmed to have the disease. After intensive dialogue with the RKI and other specialist institutions, the closure was ordered, the district administration added.

The viral disease can be transmitted through contact with fluid from the vesicles on the skin, which are typical of the disease, or through contact with vesicle scabs, but possibly also through droplets from the respiratory tract during close face-to-face contact [that’s a new one, see below]. According to the district administration, this usually occurs in the family environment. The course of the disease is usually mild.

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I’ll merely delimit myself to posting two snippets of ‘A.I.’ wisdom here:

MPox isn’t an airborne disease, but this is what follows ‘after intensive dialogue with the RKI and other specialist institutions’ determined. Here’s Grok once more informing us about what is meant by ‘close physical contact’:

‘Close physical contact’ in the context of mpox transmission refers to:

• Skin-to-skin contact: This includes touching, hugging, or engaging in activities where there is direct contact with the skin of an infected person, especially if they have skin lesions or rashes [like with other such illnesses].

• Sexual contact: Mpox can spread through any form of sexual activity, including but not limited to kissing, oral, vaginal, or anal sex, where there is direct contact with infected skin, lesions, or bodily fluids [highly relevant for a school environment].

• Contact with bodily fluids: This includes contact with saliva, respiratory secretions, or any other body fluid from an infected individual. This can occur through kissing, sharing utensils, or other intimate interactions [I’d buy that, although if the ill child stays at home until fit again…].

• Contact with lesions or scabs: Touching the rashes, lesions, or scabs of someone with mpox, or materials that have touched these lesions (like bed linens, towels, or clothing), can transmit the virus.

• Prolonged face-to-face interactions: Being in close proximity for extended periods might facilitate transmission through respiratory droplets, though this is less common compared to the direct contact methods [bruahahahahaa, see below].

• Touching objects or surfaces: Although less frequent, touching items or surfaces contaminated with the virus from an infected person's lesions or fluids can lead to transmission if one then touches their mouth, nose, or eyes.

Close physical contact essentially means any situation where there's direct or very near interaction between individuals, where the virus can transfer from one person to another, either through skin, fluids, or even air in very close settings. This definition underscores the importance of avoiding close contact with people who have mpox or are suspected of having it to prevent the spread of the virus.

(I’ve copy&pasted it here because it’s too long to have a one-picture screen-shot.)

Re the airborne transmission, I’ve followed up asking Grok the following question: ‘please point me to evidence related to the potential of “Prolonged face-to-face interactions” to spread mpox’, and here’s the answer:

‘CDC Information’, ‘WHO Statements’, and ‘Community Discussions’.

‘There is an acknowledged potential for respiratory droplet transmission’.

If you consider these vague, nebulous (pun intended) comments ‘evidence’, I’d have a bridge to sell to you.

As an aside, when I pointed this out, Grok replied:

No, thank you for the offer on the bridge, but I’ll pass. You’re right to point out that the sources I referenced provide a broad overview rather than specific, detailed evidence directly proving the spread of mpox through prolonged face-to-face interactions.

To be fair, Grok also pointed me to scientific studies, the CDC’s detailed reports, and suggested I’d delve into laboratory and animal studies as well as epidemiological investigations into the matter, yet there were no specifics given, hence I asked once more:

You could now click here and read the paper, which is a review piece. I’ll delimit myself to a few choice excerpts in the following segment.

Da Science™ on MPox Respiratory Transmission

In the mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) context, lesion-derived particulate matter (eg, pulverised scab material) from non-oral lesions can also be inhaled when suspended in the air. Here, we collectively refer to transmission through the air (whether through droplet sprays or inhalation of aerosols or lesion-derived particulates) as respiratory transmission. Notably, we did not consider infection resulting from direct contact with upper respiratory tract mucosa (eg, during kissing or oral sex) to be respiratory transmission.

In this Personal View, we describe evidence for and against MPXV respiratory transmission available from key works published from 1961 to 2022, including controlled experiments with animal models, human case reports and outbreaks, and environmental studies for both clade I and the currently circulating clade II MPXV.

Oh, look, it’s not a study in the conventional sense of the term but a ‘Personal View’. It won’t get much better from then on.

Prairie dogs are a useful animal model in laboratory experiments because they are susceptible to MPXV infection, exhibit a long incubation period, can transmit MPXV, and are the only small animal model that develops the characteristic skin rash seen in human mpox.

Translation: we’re using prairie dogs in a way akin to the proverbial drunk looking for his lost car keys under the lamp, not because he lost them there (which may be), but because there’s light.

Studies in prairie dogs have shown that inoculation [WTF?] via the upper respiratory tract results in experimentally infected animals with the ability to produce infectious secretions (and therefore potentially transmit virus without direct contact) with the recovery of viable virus from oropharyngeal secretions and oral and nasal swabs.

So, basically, this is where we need to side-step for a moment and note that Edward Jenner’s ‘story’ about his ‘invention’ of the smallpox ‘vaccine’ is bunk. Contrary to the BS that’s peddled (see here for Nat’l Library of Medicine), he didn’t discover a ‘vaccine’, but he rather noticed the phenomenon known as cross-immunity. While he didn’t understand how (we’re not that much further advanced, apparently), he at least observed that infection with cowpox made people less susceptible to smallpox, much, like, say common cold betacoronaviruses have some effect vs. Sars, Mers, and Sars-Cov-2.

The main take-away for public health™ officialdom here, though, is if one could give monkeypox to dogs by way of ‘inoculation via the upper respiratory tract…from oral and nasal swabs’, it means one can, theoretically, also test for monkeypox using ‘oral and nasal swabs’.

Moving on to actual studies, we learn:

Respiratory transmission was demonstrated with clade I MPXV (but not clade II MPXV [i.e., not with the one circulating currently]) in a prairie dog experimental model in a 2013 study.¹¹ Eight prairie dogs ([eight animals appears to be the new normal for such studies before the Omicron booster] four challenged with intranasal MPXV [i.e., scientists shoved a swab up their noses] and four naive) were housed separately in metal cages that were maintained 4 inches (roughly 10 cm) apart with multiple ventilation holes (1 inch [roughly 2.5 cm] in diameter) cut into walls that faced each other, with directional airflow from the challenged to the naive animals. The animals were unable to touch. When challenged with clade II MPXV, three of four animals developed disease; however, no transmission occurred to the naive animals [huhum, so that’s kinda the best we have? Doesn’t convince me, but it was good enough for both public health™ officials in Germany and Grok]. When the authors repeated the experiment with clade I MPXV, all four challenged animals developed disease, and transmission occurred to one of four naive prairie dogs.

At best, clade I (not in circulation now) made one out of four naive dogs ill (that’s 25%, i.e., it sounds scarier). Let’s check out the second study—with actual monkeys.

Experiments with non-human primates in the 1970s also suggested possible respiratory transmission, leading scientists at the time to believe that this could be an important MPXV transmission pathway. In a 1971 laboratory study, several yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) were housed in separate cages in the same room with shared airflow.¹² Two animals were inoculated intramuscularly with a high dose of MPXV of West African origin (clade II) and developed clinical illness consistent with mpox [repeat: ‘high dose of MPXV…clade II’]. Of six sentinel animals housed (in separate cages) in the same room, two (33%) became ill [another study with eight animals—in 1971]. The authors postulated that the two infected animals became sick during the third week of exposure [should make no argument for school closure due to respiratory transmission]. An important limitation of this study is that the distance between cages and the type of barrier between cages are not specified, leaving open the possibility of mucosal or percutaneous transmission (ie, if the animals were able to touch). [so, we can throw out that study]

That’s literally it. The study authors thus conclude:

Experimental models with prairie dogs and non-human primates suggest that MPXV respiratory transmission is possible, at least for clade I MPXV. Importantly, however, the artificial approach to inoculation and simulated exposures might not replicate the conditions of human-to-human contact.

Moving on to human-human transmission, we learn the following:

Case reports of human mpox have included upper or lower respiratory tract symptoms, but these can also be absent [i.e., MPox is perfect as you can or cannot get infected by breathing]. Oral lesions, in addition to other oropharyngeal signs and symptoms…have been reported both historically¹³ and during the 2022 clade II outbreak [no such lesions, it’s hard to make a case for respiratory transmission potential]…Prior to 2022, cough was documented in approximately half of patients with both clade I and clade II MPXV,¹⁸ but in reports from the 2022 outbreak, this symptom, along with dyspnoea and nasal congestion, has been far less common,^14–17 with cough occurring in just 7% of patients in one cross-sectional study¹⁴…

Although respiratory symptoms seem to be an uncommon manifestation of MPXV in the 2022 outbreak, the presence of viral DNA in the respiratory tract has been documented even in individuals without respiratory symptoms [i.e., MPox is perfect as you can or cannot get infected by breathing].

From there on, it get’s frankly hilariously absurd.

First, household infection information derives ‘only’ from African households, which ‘might entail various combinations of acquisition routes, with confounding exposures such as caregiving, children's play, bed-sharing, shared eating utensils, and sexual contact’.

The paper than meanders along to international (air) travel, which I’ll cite to round this off:

Investigations of MPXV transmission associated with air travel also can provide insights about the risk of respiratory transmission. So far, there have been no cases of transmission on international or domestic flights [should kinda close the book on school closures]. Between 2018 and 2021, eight individuals were diagnosed with clade II MPXV after travelling from Nigeria to the UK,^19,32,33 Singapore,³⁴ Israel,³⁵ and the USA.^36,37 Among these eight cases, four were symptomatic during [long-distance!!!] international flights, and contact investigations were performed for all four (table 1). No additional cases were identified.

A bit further below, there is this gem of logic and reason:

Reports from health-care and congregate settings for the 2022 outbreak are becoming available and provide useful case studies for examining the possibility of respiratory transmission in the absence of sexual or close, intimate contact. In endemic areas, health-care personnel are known to be at higher risk for MPXV infection relative to the general population;³⁸ however, in a 2022 investigation in Colorado, USA, none [!!!] of 313 health-care personnel exposed to patients with mpox became infected, including seven reported to be exposed during aerosol-generating procedures (four of whom did not wear an N95 respirator [wear a mask vs. MPox, out yourself as an idiot]).³⁹ Additionally, transmission without close, intimate contact has not yet been documented in congregate settings such as shelters, correctional facilities, and schools.

I’ve done some more prompting of Grok, which resulted essentially in the comment that ‘absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence’ of efficacy of masking and other public health measures, with the key take-away being:

Even if one study shows no transmission under specific conditions, the overarching strategy in healthcare is to minimize risk where possible.

If humanity would have pursued this kind of action (lol), we’d still be sitting in caves. Let’s move on.

Bottom Lines

I’m at a loss as to what to add, with perhaps one seemingly counter-intuitive historical analogy.

Remember the witch craze that affected esp. Northern Europe during the early modern era?

It’s particularly telling that most cases involved local authorities running roughshod over individuals and groups based on, at best, hearsay or worse (defamations, superstitious believes, etc.).

It’s also telling that, for the most part, Catholic areas were spared these excesses, perhaps for reasons that are as clear-cut and simple, as well as relevant for the subject matter above, as the Church’s hierarchical structures and oversight. Put differently, if such accusations surfaced, supra-ordinate institutions quickly dispatched outsiders to investigate, which typically resulted in the end of accusations of witchcraft and the like.

In the Protestant areas with their parish/congregational organisation and little, if any, comparable higher-up institutions, local authorities often joined the accusers (see the Salem witch trials for a particularly telling example).

Now, let’s revisit what happened in Northrhine-Westphalia: a local (district, or county) public health authority was informed of a ‘case’ of Mpox and closed a school.

At best, ‘RKI and other specialist institutions’ didn’t object, know, or share the above-related information about Mpox transmission via respiratory droplets.

Or that, among others, ‘RKI and other specialist institutions’ didn’t explicitly rule out school closures, abdicated their responsibilities, and told local authorities that they could, in fact, order the school closure as a preventative measure.

The parallels to the witch craze are apparent, even though it’s a combination of both aspects: even though a vast public health bureaucracy is in place (cf. the Catholic hierarchical structures), local authorities continue to do whatever they want (cf. Protestant areas with their congregational settings).

If we don’t stop this monkey-business now, we’ll close down to possibly prevent a cold next month.

And that pun was intended.

Further reading about the Mpox fraud can be found here:

The Monkeypox Puzzle

The Monkeypox Grift is Coordinated out of DC by the Shady 'Alliance for Biosecurity'

'The Science™' the WHO Relies On