No, the WHO did not admit that mpox was a “side effect of the Covid vaccine”

Publications in French link to an article published on the site “Front News“, which offers content in several languages ​​(including Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch and French) on recurring topics of conspiracy theories such as “Great Reset” (or “Great Reset” in English). The latter takes its name from an initiative by the World Economic Forum to revive the global economy disrupted by the pandemic, but has found itself in the sights of conspiracy theorists who claim that it has the hidden aim of reduce populations, as AFP has already reported (archived link here).

The article from “Front News“cites as a source an entry published on the English site”Slay News“, also already singled out by the AFP for having disseminated misleading allegations (like here and here).

The assertions made in the article are false: the WHO denied to AFP having made such a declaration, and the alleged demonstration is based on a misleading interpretation of the functioning of a site listing pharmacovigilance data. The rumor that mpox is a side effect of the Covid vaccine is also old and unfounded, and has already been verified by AFP several times.

A misleading interpretation of pharmacovigilance data

As purported proof, the articles refer to “the WHO VigiAcess website“, which lists potential side effects reported for certain medications.

By going to this site (archived link here), from the home page, the Internet user is warned that “VigiAccess is intended to be used as a starting point for people interested in learning more about the types potential side effects that have been reported following medication use. However, VigiAccess cannot be used to confirm a link between a suspected side effect and any medication.“.

It is also clearly stated that “the information on this site is related to side effects potential ; that is to say, symptoms and other situations observed after the use of a medication, but which may or may not be caused by this product“.

This is why, the site states, “the information on VigiAccess should not be interpreted as meaning that a medicine or one of its active substances has caused the observed effect or is dangerous“, car “confirming a causal link is a complex process that requires rigorous scientific evaluation and detailed evaluation of all available data“.

“The information on this site therefore does not reflect any confirmed link between a drug and a side effect.“, it is clearly underlined.

Anyone who then wishes to query the database must check a box confirming they have “read and understoods” these warnings before you can access the rest of the site.

The misleading article from “Front News” does not, however, specify all of this, and simply indicates that VigiAccess “contains a database of all known side effects of all drugs and vaccines approved for public use“, and that “Among ‘possible side effects’ of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, WHO lists ‘monkey pox’, ‘chickenpox’ and ‘cow pox’ among hundreds of other conditions“, broadcasting a screenshot taken on the site.

There is mention of several reported potential side effects, including “monkeypox“(English name of mpox), with the mention of “6“cases of potential side effects reported.

By querying the database about the side effects of the anti-Covid vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech (which appears under the name “Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine”), AFP found that there were, as of 17 October 2024, “5,761,262 reports of possible side effects“.

The most represented category of potential effects reported is that of “general disorders and side effects at the site of administration” (which represents 26% of reports, or 3,405,787 potential cases reported). These include fever (1,029,038 cases reported), fatigue (840,891 cases reported), chills (604,450 cases reported), malaise (411,946 cases reported) or pain at the injection site (704,555 cases reported).

THE “infections et infestations” represent 5% (i.e. 653,293) of the potential cases reported. It is in this category that the six reported cases of mpox appear. They appear at the bottom a long list bringing together numerous infections, including Covid, or of the “suspicions of Covid“, flu, pneumonia, bronchitis.

Beyond the fact that this database does not aim to report proven side effects, six potential cases reported out of more than 5,700,000 therefore represent a derisory figure. It is therefore all the more misleading to claim by citing these data that they could make it possible to certify that mpox is a side effect of the anti-Covid vaccine.

The articles of “Front News” et “Secret News“are”baseless inventions“, a WHO spokesperson confirmed to AFP on October 16, 2024, recalling that “the word ‘potential’ means that the side effects mentioned may potentially appear, but may not necessarily appear“and that”what is also important here is the word ‘reported’“, which means that the data visible on VigiAccess are based on national pharmacovigilance reports.

However, these pharmacovigilance centers do not all use the same methodologies to collect data, and some rely on reporting based on declarations, which are potentially subject to bias.

This is not the first time that a pharmacovigilance database has been used in a misleading manner to claim to overestimate side effects linked to anti-Covid vaccines. As early as 2022, AFP verified several misleading claims on the American and European pharmacovigilance databases.

Repeating old misleading comments

The articles continue their fallacious demonstration by asserting that the link between anti-Covid vaccine and mpox had already been revealed by a German doctor, Wolfgang Wodarg, who disseminated other false information on vaccines against Covid already verified by AFP .

In a video extract that went viral in August 2024 and from a 45-minute interview broadcast by the far-right Austrian channel “Auf 1” carried out in June 2022, he assured that what is described as mpox would in reality not be that a “simple zone“, “side effect of anti-Covid vaccines” (link archived here).

But these comments are fallacious: already, mpox has nothing to do with shingles because the viruses are completely distinct, several specialists explained to AFP in August 2024 and June 2022. Furthermore, the causal link presumed by Wolfgang Wodarg between shingles and the Covid vaccine has not been established with certainty.

As recalled in this document from the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM), dated August 2023, “the European authority has not identified a link between the occurrence of this event [NDLR, le zona] and the vaccine” (link archived here).

This article from the International Journal of Medicine also concludes that if studies have found an increased risk of reactivation of shingles after Covid vaccination, other work has not observed the same increase in risk (link archived here).

In addition, no link has been established between the Covid vaccine and mpox, which appeared well before the health crisis linked to the coronavirus.

What is mpox?

Mpox, formerly called monkeypox, is a transmissible infectious disease linked to a virus, from the poxvirus family (link archived here). Its name was changed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in November 2022, the terminology “monkeypox” giving rise to racist and homophobic stigmatization, mainly in Africa (link archived here).

The disease was first identified in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and for a long time remained confined to this country and neighboring territories. But in 2022, it began to spread to the rest of the world with nearly 100,000 cases.

This virus is characterized by “a rash that can last two to four weeks“, similar “blisters or sores“, which can be accompanied in particular “fever, headache, muscle pain, back pain” indicates the WHO on its website (archived link here).

The so-called mpox viruses are classified into two large families: clade 1, the most virulent, and clade 2.

In 2024, a new epidemic outbreak mainly affects the DRC, with, this time, two concomitant epidemics: one caused by the “clade 1“, mainly affecting children, and the other due to the emergence of a new subgroup,”clade 1b“, especially affecting adults in eastern DRC and, to a lesser extent, neighboring countries: Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya.

The increase in cases prompted the WHO to declare a global public health emergency on August 14, 2024 (archived here). The WHO had already made such a decision in 2022 when an epidemic of mpox, then carried by clade 2b, spread across the world. The alert was lifted in May 2023.

The DRC is by far the most affected country: since January, more than 30,000 cases of mpox and some 990 deaths have been recorded by the country’s authorities, with increased mortality noted among children, according to the latest figures given by the minister. of the health of the country.

According to an overall report released on October 3 by Africa CDC (African Union health agency), more than 34,000 cases have been recorded in Africa since the start of the year (link archived here).

The first ever vaccination campaign in Africa began in Rwanda on September 17. The DRC started its vaccination campaign on October 5, after receiving 265,000 doses of vaccines from the European Union and the United States.

The mpox epidemic is also the subject of a lot of misinformation. The AFP has already refuted false or misleading claims on this subject such as here, here or here.