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Several Mpox outbreaks in Africa and a new potentially dangerous variant threaten public health worldwide. (Archive photo) © Moses Sawasawa/AP
After Covid-19, anti-vaccination campaigners are now discovering Mpox for their theories. Fake news about the disease is spreading on social media. Well-known false claims are being re-published.
Berlin – Lockdowns, mass vaccinations and curfews? Should everything really start all over again? This time we’re not talking about Corona, but about Mpox. In certain corners of social media, the murmuring has recently become louder again. Using familiar conspiracy patterns from the Covid-19 pandemic, a new field of disinformation is now being cultivated based on the disease formerly known as monkeypox.
While the coronavirus has now disappeared from the daily lives of many people in Germany and disinformation about Covid-19 is mostly only exchanged in relevant circles on the Internet, false claims about Mpox have recently gained momentum on Facebook, X, Tiktok, Telegram and Co.
“The fact that the topic of Mpox was in the media is also reflected in right-wing extremist and conspiracy-ideological Telegram channels,” explains Miro Dittrich from the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (Cemas), which investigates radicalization tendencies and conspiracy theories on the Internet. According to the Cemas managing director, the keywords “monkeypox” or “Mpox” were mentioned particularly frequently in the approximately 5,000 Telegram channels and groups examined in mid-August.
Role of the WHO exaggerated
The World Health Organization (WHO) had declared a “public health emergency of international concern” due, among other things, to the increasing spread of a certain Mpox virus variant (clade Ib) in Africa. One of the reasons it wants to do this is to make authorities around the world more vigilant.
In African countries like here in the Democratic Republic of Congo, vaccinations against monkeypox are vital. (Archive photo) © Moses Sawasawa/AP/dpa
The narrative of excessive WHO power has already caught on with quite a few people during the Corona period – and was just as wrong then as it is today. “Potential infringements of fundamental rights would be the sole consequence of sovereign state action,” experts at the Bundestag’s scientific services explained as early as 2023.
Corona, Mpox, Desinformation
It turns out that false claims from the pandemic are often transferred one-to-one to Mpox. “Conspiracy ideologists can still reach people with the topic of Corona, but interest in it has already dropped significantly to a specific group,” explains Cemas expert Dittrich. There are simply no longer any government measures against which one can mobilize.
“If a new disease emerges and there is a vaccine for it, then of course it will be covered by the same narrative,” says the right-wing extremism researcher. “The conspiracy ideologists don’t care at all how dangerous Mpox is, how it is transmitted or what kind of vaccine helps against it.”
One thing must be clear: the diseases differ very significantly from one another. The transmission route of both viruses differs considerably – and thus also their infectious potential. Sars-Cov-2 is mainly transmitted via tiny droplets in the air, i.e. the respiratory tract. With Mpox, however, skin-to-skin contact is the main transmission route.
This mainly involves close skin-to-skin contact during sex or close hugging, massaging and kissing, as the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) explains. The risk of infection is particularly high in infected people with rashes, wounds or scabs.
According to the RKI, not a single Mpox case with clade I has yet been detected in Germany (as of August 31), which, according to preliminary findings, causes more severe disease courses than the virus variant that was already circulating previously (clade IIb). The RKI has so far recorded around 3,800 cases of clade IIb nationwide, the majority of which (around 3,700) from early summer to autumn 2022.
“Mpox is not the new Covid,” said WHO Director for Europe, Hans Kluge, in Geneva in mid-August. When asked by journalists whether lockdowns like those during the coronavirus pandemic are imminent, he replied: “No.” The WHO also does not recommend wearing a face mask.
In addition, vaccines against Mpox have long been available. Social media is also mobilizing against them. “The basic problem is that those who have rejected vaccinations during the pandemic are largely not actually concerned with the concrete effect of a vaccination itself,” says Dittrich. “A very large majority of these people believe that there is no virus at all. Or that the virus is not dangerous. Or that the state wants to control people through vaccinations and measures.”
Mpox can affect everyone, not just gays
Some deny the disease, others downplay its danger. Still others do not deny the diagnosis itself, but brand people as sinful. One piece of misinformation that is often put forward is that Mpox is an infection that is only sexually transmitted between men. A similar stigma for gays and bisexuals took hold decades ago when it came to AIDS/HIV.
In fact, in Germany, clade IIb has so far mainly affected men who have sex with men. In principle, however, gender plays no role; infection is also possible during heterosexual intercourse or other close contact between people. In Africa, women suffer miscarriages as a result, and many children are also affected, especially in clade I.
“We see very clearly in the right-wing extremist scene that homosexuality is equated with perversity and immorality,” explains Dittrich. Then they say: “Look, here, they are bringing you the diseases.”
