Hoping to keep monkeypox out of the limelight

Just when you thought it was safe to go back outside - relatively speaking - along comes monkeypox.

It used to be that whenever a scare began around a new infection, you expected it to be gone from the headlines within a few weeks like swine flu and SARS - with the number of cases no longer troubling reporters.

But Covid changed all that. More than two years later, coronavirus is still never too far down the news agenda, even though its devastating ‘heyday’ has hopefully passed.

Now everyone fears the worst with monkeypox, not least because of the ominous name (which could also be an ‘edgy’ comedy on BBC Three).

It could just be a passing concern and the name will shortly become the punchline to many jokes.

But for the time being, no one wants to call in sick with a case of monkeypox - with the possible exception of a few malingerers who take perverse pleasure in telling others about their exotic illnesses.

It is a viral infection but, unlike Covid, monkeypox is difficult to catch in public, being contracted through close physical contact.

So, there’s no need to glare at people who get too close to you in the supermarket aisle. You would probably need to invade someone’s space to a criminal degree to pass on monkeypox, so any potential superspreaders would deserve tougher retaliation than a hard stare.

Either way, we are all asked to be on our guard, even though the number of cases in this country is mercifully still small.

But no one in their right mind is being complacent this time, after the harsh lesson of coronavirus. The spectre of self-isolation remember that? - has already raised its head, along with a warning to avoid travel (which most people are still doing anyway).

You’ll know it’s getting really serious when Chris Whitty appears on the television more than Paddy McGuinness and people start painting rainbows on the outside of their houses.

‘You’d need to invade someone’s space to a criminal degree to pass it on, which would deserve tougher retaliation than a hard stare’