I was involved with the last outbreak of monkey pox. I was not infected. I was working at a pet store. One of the largest in the country at the timer.I worked in the fish department. Being a large place we always were getting in the latest and greatest fad pet. Mainly small rodent like critters. Basically a furball you kept in a cage that wanted to sleep eat and bite you.

For awhile prairie dogs were all the rage, yes the targets. Anyways we got a batch in sold like hotcakes as usual. We had a few left that started to not look right. Then a few customers had the ones they bought get sick. Then the customers got sick. It hit the fan once someone was finally diagnosed. All kinds of government types poking around the store. Asking questions health screening all the BS.

I walked past the cage of sick ones in the back room every day. Did not have direct contact. Supposedly takes a lot to spread it. But that was what .gov said so take that however you want. We had .gov hovering around for nearly a year monitoring things. They even had USDA trappers sent traps inside and around the area outside the building to test any lose rodents.

Don't know if it was just .gov going overkill to piss away a bunch of money or there was reason to be so concerned.

In the end only one employee got sick. Black women that was constantly playing with the sick ones.She spent like two weeks in hospital, more as quarantine than needing treatment. Initially .gov was talking about quarantining us all in place at the store.

At the time they figure the prairie dogs were exposed to some giant chihuahua sized african rat at the supplier.