Did the Mpox (monkeypox) vaccine appear 'suddenly' during A 2022 outbreak of the disease, showing it was part of a plan to sow fear and promote vaccines? No, that's not true: while there's no specific vaccine for the disease, a smallpox vaccine proven to be the most effective at reducing the risk of Mpox has been authorized in the EU since 2013, and the same vaccine was authorized by EU regulators for use to protect against Mpox in 2022. The US has authorized its use to protect against both smallpox and Mpox since 2019.
The claim appeared most recently in this video (archived here), re-uploaded on TikTok on August 15, 2023, after it first appeared on a different account in August 2022. As translated by Lead Stories staff, Senator Diana Șoșoacă, says at the 1:36 minute mark:
It seems that the global occult has not reached its goal. But it will try. Just look at how they spread fear using monkeypox. They started the vaccination. Won't you look at that, this vaccine showed up all of a sudden
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Aug 18 07:05:50 2023 UTC)
In the video, Șoșoacă first congratulates her audience for 'resisting' the COVID-19 vaccination, next she draws a parallel with the monkeypox outbreak that was underway in 2022. Șoșoacă, a Senator and the leader of the far-right party SOS Romania is known to promote misinformation about the COVID pandemic, vaccines, and the war in Ukraine.
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed an outbreak of Mpox in May 2022 and declared it a public health emergency of international concern in July 2022. It did not recommend mass vaccination, only targeted vaccination for those exposed to someone infected and those at high risk of exposure, including health workers, laboratory workers and people with multiple sexual partners.
Mpox, recently adopted as a new name for the monkeypox disease, occurs in humans and some other animals and spreads through direct contact with rashes or body fluids. It's caused by the monkeypox virus, related to the virus that causes smallpox.
There's no specific vaccine for the disease, but the smallpox vaccine MVA-BN (Modified Vaccinia Ankara, produced by Bavarian Nordic) has been shown to offer up to 85 percent protection against Mpox.
The MVA-BN vaccine (also known as Imvanex, Imvamune and Jynneos) did not appear 'suddenly'. In the EU, it was authorized in 2013 to protect against smallpox in adults, and the European Medicines Agency extended its marketing authorization on July 25, 2022, to include prevention against Mpox.
In the US, it was approved in 2019 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the prevention of both smallpox and monkeypox disease in adults determined to be at high risk for smallpox or monkeypox infection.
The Mpox outbreak is no longer considered a global health emergency since May 2023.
