Droplets settle rapidly and fall to the ground. Airborne viruses can travel via very fine droplets or aerosols over longer distances.
I know you know it does not travel via aerosol, but in the medical world, airborne and aerosol are practically synonymous.
The word "vector" gets misused a LOT here on FR. When speaking of a disease vector:
"Vectors are living organisms that can transmit infectious pathogens between humans, or from animals to humans. Many of these vectors are bloodsucking insects, which ingest disease-producing microorganisms during a blood meal from an infected host (human or animal) and later transmit it into a new host, after the pathogen has replicated. Often, once a vector becomes infectious, they are capable of transmitting the pathogen for the rest of their life."
"https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/vector-borne-diseases"
Sorry, but the crazy ways people are using "vector" on FR when discussing diseases is bugging me, and renders their sentences nonsensical.
Previous outbreaks have been readily contained via contact tracing and isolation. Nearly all cases are occurrng within highly promiscuous sexual networks. The problem with "trace and isolate" in this group is anonymous sex with strangers -- the patient can't name his "close contacts". The same challenge would exist if response was stepped up to ring vaccination.
Those outside those networks generally know who their close contacts are and trace and isolate should work fine as before.
Where did you read 50% of cases in the UK are "nonhomo"? Do you have a link? I would be interested in reading about it. According to UKHSA "People who are gay or bisexual and men who have sex with men remain disproportionately affected."
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/monkeypox-cases-confirmed-in-england-latest-updates
Yes, monkeypox is related to smallpox but is way less contagious with an R0 of >1. Smallpox has an R0 of 3.5 - 6. Now, that's assuming a normal population. Within the population who attend these enormous fetish festivals and huge orgies at gay saunas and have "gay relations" with tens of strangers, it would be WAY higher.
It's not so much a case of the monkeypox virus "evolving" to replace smallpox. It's a case of humans losing immunity to smallpox (which also confers immunity to monkeypox) after vaccination was halted. With no immunity to the pox family of viruses, we humans offer monkeypox a handy new niche to occupy.
Again, humans are not a vector of monkeypox or anything else. We are hosts who can spread it directly to other human (and animal) hosts. Monkeypox is not a vector-borne disease.
If someone has malaria (which is a vector-borne disease), he can cough and sneeze all over you and still not give it to you. You can have intimate relations with a malaria patient and still not catch it. But if there are mosquitoes around, yes you can catch it. The mosquito is the vector. The humans are the hosts.
If someone has monkeypox, a mosquito bites him and later bites someone else, nope, no monkeypox transmission. It cannot replicate inside the mosquito's gut like malaria can.
Where did you find the information that the secondary transmission rate within a few rows on a plane is over 50%? "The secondary attack rate in unvaccinated contacts of monkeypox cases was calculated to be 9.3%." (see link at bottom of this post).
There have been prior cases of symptomatic patients travelling on long fights (including transatlantic flights) with no transmission whatsover.
"July 2021 Travel-Associated Case
CDC and the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed on July 15, 2021 a case of human monkeypox in a U.S. citizen who traveled from Nigeria to the United States on two commercial flights. CDC supported state and local health officials to identify more than 200 people who had possible contact with the patient. Contacts were asked to monitor their health for 21 days. In early September, 21 days had passed without additional cases identified, and the monitoring period for the remaining contacts ended. Strong collaboration between CDC, state and local health departments, airline and airport partners, and other stakeholders involved in this investigation helped to prevent additional cases of monkeypox in the U.S. related to this case."
https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/outbreak/us-outbreaks.html
"There were 3 cases diagnosed in the UK between 8 and 26 September 2018. All known close contacts were followed up after their last contact with cases; no further cases were identified and no further transmission of virus was detected (3)."
https://jglobalbiosecurity.com/article/10.31646/gbio.22/
You can read about procedures followed in the first two cases (third case was a nurse who caught it from patient #2 before proper PPE procedures were instituted), the contact tracing and monitoring (including of airline passengers), etc., here:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6157091/
Both patients were symptomatic before leaving Nigeria, both travelled to the UK by air, then travelled to different destinations within the UK. In both cases, medical personnel did not use proper PPE during early contact with these patients. No one, except the one nurse, caught it.
Of course you *could* catch it from a seat mate on a long flight, hence the tracing and monitoring by health authorities.
What source do you have for the 60-70% household attack rate? That's as bad and worse than the more contagious smallpox! Most sources I have seen put it at around 50% for household members who have never received the smallpox vaccine. With proper PPE procedures (gloves when handling soiled bedding, mask, disinfection of surfaces, etc.), it would likely be far, far lower.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/monkeypox