We’re facing a triple threat of COVID, monkeypox and polio. Let’s take them seriously.

The United States is under an ongoing triple threat from polio, monkeypox and COVID-19. These diseases should be readily controllable with vaccinations along with following public health advice. Unfortunately, during our current COVID-19 surge, few are wearing masks, avoiding indoor public settings and maintaining a six-foot distance from strangers.

At the same time the United States is experiencing a surge in monkeypox, whose main mechanism of spread is from close contact. Needless to say, having intimate contact with strangers will readily spread disease. Having multiple contacts, exponentially fuels a pandemic. With monkeypox, there is no “safe sex.”

Many healthcare workers are beat down and demoralized, scared to publicly voice an opinion. The public’s irrational tolerance of death, illness and long-term disability from COVID-19 has the risk of spilling over to other diseases. As the tolerance for being severely sick has risen in our population, so too has vaccine hesitancy.

For example, the mere mention of polio has historically sounded alarms. A large majority of individuals infected with polio have no symptoms, 72%, and approximately 25% have a flu like illness. A small percentage, about one in 200, of individuals who contract the polio virus suffer paralysis. Polio is fatal for between 2-10% of those paralyzed or between 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 10,000 of those infected.(2) But now that polio has reemerged in the United States with one confirmed case and seven wastewater samples from two counties testing positive, will we be able to muster the will to stop the spread in these communities? Or will we again hear the mantra which we heard at the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic of “your chance of dying is less than 1% so we should not restrict activities and vaccines are too risky to take?”

We are also largely ignoring the epidemic of monkeypox. There is a lot of talk regarding disease prevention, but little action by the public. There are long lines for vaccines which are in short supply but too few are willing to change their behavior which could readily decrease spread and possibly even stop the pandemic. As of Aug. 9, 2022, the United States has 9,492 cases, more than any other country, approximately 30% of the worldwide total.

In addition, new variants of SARS-CoV-2 are emerging at an alarming rate. The latest variant of concern is BA.4.6. It currently comprises 4.8% of SARS-CoV-2 isolates and is rapidly increasing. It appears to be effectively outcompeting our current BA.5 variant. As immunity in our community drops, and viral infectivity increases, more infections, hospitalizations, deaths and Long COVID will occur. Many feel that because rates have dropped the virus has become endemic, but we are still having 500 deaths per day in the nation. And cases of Long COVID continue to mount, even in those who are reinfected or develop infections after vaccination. Current rates of cases are too high to be sustained for eternity.

Vaccinations are one of our major tools of stopping epidemics. Everyone should keep their vaccinations up to date. The recent case of polio was from Rockland County, NY. Rockland County and the adjacent Orange County have polio vaccination rates of only 60.3% and 58.7%, respectively. It is estimated that herd immunity will require a vaccination rate of between 80% to 86%. The rate of polio vaccination is still higher than Kentucky’s rate for COVID vaccinations, with only 27% of Kentucky’s population being boosted and only 58% having had the 2-dose vaccine. For adequate protection against our current variant, receiving two additional booster doses is highly recommended. So far, it appears that large segments of our population and businesses are not willing to implement measures such as the use of N95 masks and improving indoor ventilation to promote safe casual contact, and a substantial portion of our population is not even willing to avoid close intimate contact with strangers.

It is a new world, and we must act differently. Vaccinations alone will rarely stop a pandemic, nor can the Kentucky Department for Public Health or the Federal Government. It also takes public cooperation and the support of public health initiatives.

Kevin Kavanagh is the founder of HealthWatch USA and a Somerset resident.