Posts Sharing Mpox Misinformation Recycle Claims from Prior Viral Outbreaks

Este artículo estará disponible en español en El Tiempo Latino. SciCheck Digest Responding to rising mpox cases in Africa, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern on Aug. 14. Social media posts subsequently repeated a plethora of false or baseless claims, including that COVID-19 vaccines cause the viral disease or that the current outbreak is part of a global conspiracy. Full Story Mpox is a& viral disease& caused by the monkeypox virus, found in small mammals in parts of Africa. The virus historically has caused limited outbreaks in humans after spreading to them from animals. It causes a painful rash and is sometimes lethal, although it causes less severe disease than the related smallpox virus. As we’ve previously& written, there are two main types, or clades, of the virus. A version of the virus belonging to clade II spread around the world in humans in an outbreak starting in 2022, primarily affecting men who have sex with men. The outbreak& continues, albeit with lower levels of infection globally than at its peak. Meanwhile, another family of mpox-causing viruses belonging to clade I has been on the rise in parts of Africa, and in 2023, a...