THE World Health Organization has finally sounded its most serious alarm over the spread of monkeypox, declaring it a “public health emergency of international concern”, just as it did for covid-19 in 2020.
Many researchers think this decision should have been taken a month ago when the WHO first considered it. The disease is spreading rapidly around the world, with more than 16,000 cases confirmed so far this year (see Monkeypox has become a global health emergency, says WHO).
But the real issue isn’t this delay. It is that we have had decades to stop this outbreak happening …