After the first cases of monkeypox were recorded in Europe, various speculations and tall tales about the virus causing it began to spread rapidly on social networks.
Many of them are copied from conspiracy theories born during the coronavirus pandemic.
Tik Tok users tirelessly discuss the allegedly planned new restrictions on movement. One account invites subscribers to get ready for new lockdowns and the “tyranny of monkeypox.”
Other reports mimic the British government’s press conferences during lockdowns in the UK, using the same slogans that the country’s government used during the pandemic.
Although concerns about the outbreak of monkeypox are understandable, scientists say that this virus is not like Covid-19, and most experts agree that monkeypox will not grow to the size of a full-fledged pandemic.
Unlike coronavirus, the new pathogen is much more difficult to transmit, doctors already have available vaccines and treatment methods to combat it, and people become contagious only after symptoms appear, which greatly facilitates their detection and isolation.
Thus, in reality, restrictive measures such as mass isolation or mandatory vaccination campaigns will not be required, says Professor Peter Horby, director of the Pandemic Research Center at Oxford University.
Instead, quarantine measures are much more effective and directed at the infected themselves and those with whom they have been in close contact directly.
Dr. Rosamund Lewis, speaking on behalf of the World Health Organization, said that there is no need for mass vaccination against monkeypox. WHO experts also assured us that so far there is no reason to impose any restrictions on travel and flights.
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