While the state's public health commissioner did recently brief local officials on monkeypox, the governor downplayed any comparison to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic — noting there are few cases in the U.S. and the disease requires intense close contact to spread.
Beshear had this to say about treating any potential outbreak.
"We already have treatments for monkeypox if it becomes necessary. The smallpox vaccine works very well on it. It's just we'd eradicated smallpox, so people under a certain age haven't had that. So we are watching it. There is no reason for alarm."Gov. Andy Beshear
Meanwhile, on the COVID front, the state continues to see an escalation in its positivity rate and new case numbers, but hospitalizations are only ticking up slightly and ventilator usage remains flat.
"There is more COVID going around right now. I think we all see that and we all know people who are getting it," Beshear said. "It is not making people as sick and that is a function of a couple of things"
— those being a less aggressive variant circulating and a better protected populace thanks to vaccinations and any immunity brought on by previous infections.