The characteristics of the current monkeypox outbreak, first detected in May in the U.K., are unprecedented. This is the first time the disease is spreading in such large numbers across the world. As of Aug. 29, there were more than 48,500 cases of monkeypox in 99 countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with more than 18,000 people infected in the U.S. The outbreak also differs from previous ones in that most of the cases, but not all, are occurring among men who have sex with men.
But none of that means that the monkeypox virus was engineered in a lab, as Mercola falsely suggests at one point in his post.
“The monkeypox virus was created at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” reads a subhead in the post in Spanish. The subhead in the English version is slightly less specific: “Monkeypox Virus Made by Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
He goes on to say, “And, as with COVID, there’s evidence that we may not be dealing with something that arose accidentally and naturally.”
That’s not accurate. There is no evidence that either SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, or the monkeypox virus was intentionally engineered, as the post misleadingly suggests. (Nor is there evidence that either virus came from a lab accidentally without engineering.)
Mercola then moves on to discuss a video posted by John Campbell, a retired nurse educator in the U.K., about a study in which scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology used a method known as transformation-associated recombination to create a portion of the monkeypox viral genome that could be used in a diagnostic test for monkeypox.
As we’ve written, there is no connection between the current monkeypox outbreak and the WIV study. Researchers did not create a full monkeypox virus genome — they only assembled a fragment of it, which isn’t enough to produce a functional virus. Plus, the monkeypox viral sequence they used is different from the virus now circulating. (For more, see SciCheck’s “Posts Distort Chinese Research Creating Fragment of Monkeypox Viral Genome.”)
Mercola acknowledges part of this in his post. He says, for example: “[T]hey did not create a full-length genome in this study. The genome fragment they used was only one-third of the full genome of the monkeypox virus.” But earlier, he misleadingly says that the scientists “basically built a new genome.”
Vaccine Claims
Mercola’s post also could leave readers with a distorted view of the monkeypox vaccines and how they are being deployed to combat the outbreak.
For example, he says “there is no specific monkeypox vaccine.” It’s true that the two vaccines that may be used against monkeypox in the U.S. — Jynneos and ACAM2000 — are also used against smallpox.
But the Jynneos vaccine, which is the preferred one for its safety profile, was specifically approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of monkeypox in 2019. Mercola’s description could leave the false impression that there was no FDA-approved vaccine for monkeypox.
Contrary to the post’s claim that it’s “unclear which of the two vaccines is currently being administered,” thus far the ACAM2000 vaccine has not been used. That’s because it has more side effects and can be dangerous for pregnant people and for those with certain skin conditions or weakened immune systems — such as those with HIV, which reportedly includes about a third of the people infected during this outbreak. And because ACAM2000 uses live, replicating vaccinia virus (a less severe orthopox virus), its recipients can pass the vaccine virus to others. Jynneos does not have that problem, as it contains a nonreplicating modified vaccinia virus.
Mercola also argues that monkeypox vaccination is unwise and predicated on too little data, saying, for example, that there’s “no telling whether the vaccine will have any benefit at all.”
He’s right that there isn’t a lot of data on how well — or how long — the Jynneos vaccine will work.
Data from a study conducted in the late 1980s in the Democratic Republic of the Congo suggests that the precursor of the ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine was 85% effective in preventing monkeypox. There are no randomized controlled trials studying efficacy of Jynneos against monkeypox in humans, but there are data from a smallpox trial showing that the vaccine produces neutralizing antibodies in people that are comparable to those produced in response to the ACAM2000 vaccine.
The FDA approved Jynneos based on that evidence, along with animal data showing that the vaccine protected nonhuman primates infected with monkeypox virus.
Still, there is enough evidence for scientists to be confident that the vaccine will have some benefit.
Dr. Boghuma Titanji, an infectious disease specialist at Emory University, told NPR, that she had no doubt that Jynneos would provide some protection, even if it’s uncertain how much.
When she gives someone the vaccine, she said, she’s upfront about those limitations.
“I tell them, ‘We do know that you’re going to get some protection from this vaccine. Some protection is better than no protection. We also do know that the vaccine can reduce the severity of the disease if you do get infected. But we don’t know for a fact that you would be completely protected from getting monkeypox,’” she said.
It is also important to mention that currently the CDC is not recommending mass vaccination. The two-dose vaccine is only available for those with a known or presumed exposure to monkeypox, and those at high risk of exposure. The vaccine provides the highest protection two weeks after the second dose.
On Aug. 17, Dr. Rosamund Lewis, WHO’s technical lead for monkeypox, said that although there are no direct clinical efficacy studies in the context of the current outbreak, the WHO is starting to see results from some observational studies. They do show some protection, but also some breakthrough cases.
“We are not expecting 100% efficacy for these vaccines for the prevention of monkeypox,” said Lewis during a telebriefing. “We don’t know the exact information. What we are seeing are breakthrough cases which are not really surprises, but it reminds us that vaccine is not a silver bullet.”
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