An mpox outbreak spreading across several African countries, which the World Health Organization has called a global emergency, has caused a spike in online disinformation about the viral disease. No links to shingles or the COVID vaccine In a video circulated on X and Facebook, Wolfgang Wodarg, a German doctor known for his anti-vaccine views, claimed that mpox and shingles shared the same symptoms. The physician also accused the pharmaceutical industry of frightening people to make profit.
This is false. Mpox is not a shingles epidemic caused by the COVID-19 vaccine. Much is already known about the virus and the means to control it.
Mpox, which was first detected in the 1970s in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), long predates COVID vaccines. The disease, which is caused by a virus transmitted by infected animals but passed from human to human through close physical contact, belongs to the family of poxviruses—whereas shingles is a kind of herpes. Symptoms also differ, with shingles causing smaller, painful lesions and rashes.
Mpox does not affect only gay men Some social media users have dismissed their risk of contracting mpox with homophobic comments. "There is no infectious disease in the world whose transmission is limited by a person's sexual orientation," said Richard Martinello, an infectious disease specialist at Yale University. "It is close, skin-to- skin contact which can lead to the spread of mpox, not one's sexual orientation.
" The virus is carried .