Mpox ‘Not the New COVID’ — But Vaccines Still The Answer, WHO Claims

Written by Suzzane Burdick, Ph. D on August 26, 2024. Posted in Current News

Mpox is “not the new Covid” — but vaccines are needed to stop the spread, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, emphasized in an Aug. 20 media briefing that, unlike COVID-19, mpox primarily spreads through close skin-to-skin contact with mpox lesions.

Referring to mpox as a “test for global equity,” Kluge urged European countries to “act in solidarity” with African countries by taking measures — such as vaccination, surveillance and administering antiviral drugs — to control the disease.

“We can, and must, tackle mpox together — across regions and continents,” he said.

Dr. David Bell, a public health physician and biotech consultant, told The Defender the WHO’s response to the recent mpox outbreak is more about producing profits than addressing global health disparities. “This is about selling more stuff, not health equity,” he said.

The number of deaths caused by mpox is minuscule compared to the number of deaths caused by other diseases common to Africa, such as tuberculosis and malaria.

“Although the actual numbers are unclear,” Bell said, “WHO claims about 500 deaths from Mpox this year in DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo]. That is about how many people die of tuberculosis every 4 hours.”

The DRC, which is about the size of Western Europe and is home to roughly 110 million people, is regarded by the World Bank as one of the world’s poorest countries.

By overly focusing on mpox, Bell explained, the WHO is diverting funding from addressing these other diseases and “very basic” issues affecting DRC residents’ health, such as sanitation and nutrition.

Journalist James Roguski pointed out that the South Africa Vaccine Injury Medico-Legal Study-Group doesn’t support the emergency rollout of a mpox vaccine.

Roguski told The Defender, “Clearly, there are far more serious health issues in the DRC than the 500+ deaths attributed to mpox.”

Roguski said the WHO’s method of counting cases of mpox is “blatantly fraudulent.”

“The WHO defines a ‘confirmed case’ of mpox as anyone with a positive result on a PCR ‘test,’” he said. “The PCR process is NOT capable of diagnosing disease. It is also NOT capable of identifying an intact virion that might be transmissible or contagious.”

Nonetheless, South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa — who leads pandemic preparedness activities for the African Union — on Aug. 17 called on countries in the region to allocate more domestic funds to fight mpox, according to the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Mpox vaccine makers rev up production 

The African CDC announced it is enacting a “clear plan” to get 10 million doses of vaccine for the continent after the WHO’s Aug. 14 declaration of mpox as a global public health emergency, reported the BBC.

Vaccine maker Emergent BioSolutions on Aug. 19 responded to the WHO’s declaration by pledging to donate 50,000 doses of its smallpox vaccine to African countries. The company in 2023 submitted its smallpox vaccine, ACAM2000, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval for immunization against mpox.

Joe Papa, Emergent’s president and CEO, said the company for years has supplied the vaccine to the U.S. and “allied governments in support of preparedness and stockpiling initiatives.”

“Currently,” Papa said, “we have additional product already in inventory, with the ability to increase supply by approximately 40 million doses, if and potentially when needed.”

The U.S. and Japan also recently pledged to donate vaccines to DRC, Reuters reported.

Bavarian Nordic — manufacturer of the Jynneos vaccine — said in an Aug. 17 statement that it is working closely with stakeholders to provide “equitable access” to its mpox vaccine in Europe and beyond.

“We are also working with the WHO on a regulatory path to ensure access to all countries,” said Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin.

Jynneos vaccine can cause heart problems 

On Aug. 16, Bavarian Nordic said it plans to seek European regulatory approval for its Jynneos vaccine for children ages 12-17. The FDA granted the vaccine an “emergency use authorization” for adolescents during the 2022 global mpox outbreak.

Roguski pointed out the Jynneos vaccine was shown by the FDA to cause severe cardiac adverse events in 1.3% of recipients. He said it was “absolutely unacceptable” that the vaccine be recommended for use in adults or teens.

Dutch attorney Meike Terhorst — who has called out the WHO for its “powergrab” in Europe via its revised International Health Regulations — told The Defender the WHO’s actions in Europe and Africa need to be “critically followed.”

“It is important that medicine does not transform into medical tyranny,” Terhorst said.

Bell — who formerly served as a medical officer and scientist at the WHO — said the WHO in past years wasn’t so intensely focused on applying pharmaceutical solutions to global health problems.

“What we are witnessing,” Bell said, “is an acceleration of the pivot of international public health from major health burdens and basic improvement of metabolic and health resilience, such as sanitation, nutrition and living conditions — the major influences on longevity in wealthy countries over the past 150 years — to dramatization of anything that can be heavily commoditized.”

Although pharmaceutical products may sometimes play a role in improving health equity, the improvement in basic living standards, in supply lines for basic health essentials and in strengthening economics are “overwhelmingly the most important.”

“Most people working in international public health are fully aware of this, but we have now built an industry where all the incentives are to please funders linked to the pharmaceutical industry — whilst the role of the pharmaceutical industry’s leaders is to maximize profits for themselves and their shareholders,” Bell said.

The people in central Africa will, unfortunately, come out worst off, he said. “Before blaming Pharma, we should blame ourselves for allowing such an industry to be built.”

See more here The Defender

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