Memories of Corona

Mpox pox give rise to wild conspiracy theories

After Covid-19, the Mpox pox is now causing a wave of false reports and conspiracy theories - about the disease itself, but also about vaccinations.

(Bild: APA/dpa/Jens Wolf)

Lockdowns, mass vaccinations and curfews? Is everything really going to start all over again? We're not talking about corona this time, but about Mpox. In certain corners of social media, the murmurings have recently increased again. Using familiar conspiracy patterns from the Covid-19 pandemic, a new field of disinformation is now being cultivated using 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 online circles, false claims about Mpox have recently gained momentum on Facebook, X, TikTok, Telegram and the like.

"The fact that the topic of Mpox was in the media is also reflected in right-wing extremist and conspiracy ideology Telegram channels," said Miro Dittrich from the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (Cemas), which investigates radicalization trends and conspiracy narratives online. According to the Cemas Managing Director, the keywords "monkeypox" or "Mpox" were again mentioned particularly frequently in the approximately 5,000 Telegram channels and groups examined in mid-August.

Mpox can be transmitted through physical contact with an infected person, with contaminated material (e.g. clothing, bedding) or with infected animals.

(Bild: AP/Moses Sawasawa)

The World Health Organization (WHO) had declared a "public health emergency of international concern" due to the increasing spread of a certain Mpox virus variant (clade Ib) in Africa. Among other things, it wants to encourage authorities around the world to be more vigilant.

Rumors of new lockdowns
 Rumorsquickly spread online that the WHO had ordered governments to prepare for new mega lockdowns in the same breath. It has not. In any case, such a directive is completely out of thin air: The international organization is neither entitled nor in a position to do so. "Only the countries themselves have the sovereignty to make decisions and take measures for the health of their populations," WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told the German Press Agency (dpa).

The narrative of exaggerated WHO power already caught on with quite a few people during the coronavirus era - and was just as wrong then as it is today. "Potential encroachments on fundamental rights would only be the result of sovereign state action", experts at the scientific services of the German Bundestag emphasized back in 2023.

Conspiracy ideologues can still reach people with the topic of coronavirus, but interest in it has already fallen to a very specific group.

Miro Dittrich, Center für Monitoring, Analyse und Strategie

It turns out that false claims from the pandemic are often transferred one-to-one to Mpox. "Conspiracy ideologues can still reach people with the topic of coronavirus, but interest in it has already fallen to a very specific group," says Cemas expert Dittrich. There are no longer any government measures to mobilize against.

"If a new disease emerges and there is a vaccination for it, then of course it will be framed under the same narrative," says the right-wing extremism researcher. "The conspiracy ideologues don't care how dangerous Mpox is, how the transmission works or what kind of vaccination helps against it."

"Mpox" is not Covid!
Let's be clear: The diseases are very different from each other. The transmission route of the two viruses alone differs considerably - and so does their infection potential. SARS-CoV-2 is mainly transmitted via tiny droplets in the air, i.e. the respiratory tract. With Mpox, on the other hand, 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. There is a particular risk of infection in infected people with rashes, wounds or scabs.

According to the RKI, not a single case of Mpox clade I has been detected in Germany to date (as of August 31), which, according to preliminary findings, causes more severe courses of the disease than the previously circulating virus variant (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 fall 2022. According to AGES (Agency for Health and Food Safety), 348 cases of Mpox have been reported in Austria since May 23, 2022 (as of August 19, 2024). Of these, eleven cases were reported in 2023 and ten cases to date in 2024. The disease is notifiable.

"Mpox is not the new Covid," WHO Director for Europe, Hans Kluge, clarified in mid-August. When asked by journalists whether lockdowns are imminent, as with the coronavirus pandemic, he replied: "No." The WHO also does not recommend wearing a face mask.

Vaccines have long been available
Vaccines against Mpox have also long been available. They are also being campaigned against on social media. "The basic problem is that those who have rejected vaccinations during the pandemic are for the most part not actually concerned with the specific effect of a vaccination itself," said 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."

Some deny the disease, others play down its danger. Still others do not deny the diagnosis itself, but use it to brand people as sinful. This is because one misinformation that is repeatedly put forward is that Mpox is an infection that is only sexually transmitted between men. A similar stigma for gays and bisexuals was already attached to AIDS/HIV decades ago.

In fact, clade IIb in Germany has so far mainly affected men who have sex with men. In principle, however, gender does not play a 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 by clade I.

"We see very strongly in the extreme right-wing scene that homosexuality is equated with perversity and immorality," said Dittrich. Then they say: "Look, here, they'll bring you the diseases."