What is really going on with monkeypox? Part 2

‍Monkeypox in 2024 — an expedient emergency

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has again declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern, (PHEIC), as he stated in an announcement, tweeted by Concerned Citizen, below. When he declared monkeypox a PHEIC in 2022, he made the decision unilaterally, claiming that he had to act as a "tie-breaker" since a survey of his expert committee revealed a 9-6 decision against it being a PHEIC. (He did so even though he acknowledged that it is a disease, like AIDS, which is mostly prevalent among gay men and for which there are control measures.) This time, however, Tedros’s committee itself advised that it was a PHEIC and he accepted its decision. 

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FLCCC Senior Fellow, Family Medicine, Dr. Kat Lindly, explained, in the text of her tweet below, that the standing recommendations that Tedros issued last time were about to expire. Declaring a PHEIC would allow him to extend those recommendations and issue new ones. In her video, she pointed out that monkeypox is considered to be a disease largely spread through gay sex and that people think critically about any of the agency's recommendations.

Also part of the picture is the pandemic treaty (which WHO member states had refused to approve previously) and which Tedros is hoping will pass shortly, as RNZ News reported. So it perhaps becomes expedient for Tedros to declare another PHEIC (pandemic) beforehand.

Even children can get a disease caused by men having sex with men

Moreover, the WHO claims that the current strain is a different variant with greater mortality than last year's, as reported by Business Times's Brett Wattles. 

The African continent has been hit hard by mpox, a viral disease formerly known as monkeypox, which has spread to 13 countries and resulted in over 17,000 reported cases and more than 500 deaths since the beginning of the year. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is at the epicenter of the outbreak, accounting for over 96% of all confirmed cases. "We are now in a situation where mpox poses a risk to many more neighbors in and around central Africa," warned Salim Abdool Karim, chair of the Africa CDC emergency group.

They are also claiming great risk to infants and children, Wattles continued:

The outbreak has been particularly devastating among children, with nearly 70% of cases in the DRC involving individuals under 15 years old. Tragically, children also account for 85% of the deaths.

The spread of the virus in refugee camps in eastern Congo has been especially concerning, where overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions have exacerbated the crisis. Jacques Alonda, an epidemiologist working in the region, recounted the harrowing case of a six-week-old baby who contracted mpox just two weeks after birth due to the conditions in an overcrowded hospital.

'Moneypox' on the rise?

Was Dr. Robert Malone right when he wrote his substack post "Monkeypox or Moneypox?" in 2022, claiming that this was all about money while pointing to potential beneficiaries such as vaccine manufacturers and the holding companies that invested in them? It’s a disease that can be controlled if men would stop having sex with multiple partners[1] and is killing children due to lack of sanitation. Yet, even before the PHEIC declaration, the US had already committed millions of dollars in aid, primarily for vaccines, to the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), Wattles further reported.

In response to the outbreak, U.S. officials have committed $424 million in aid to the DRC, including 50,000 doses of the Jynneosmpox vaccine and $10 million in health assistance. This assistance is part of a broader package that includes over $170 million in agricultural commodities. The health aid aims to support critical public health interventions in the region, which has struggled with mpox outbreaks for decades but lacks the infrastructure for widespread vaccine distribution.

Shifty numbers

The WHO’s press conference may be viewed in the video below, at the beginning of which Tedros announced the PHEIC declaration, claiming an upsurge of monkeypox cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo with more than 14,000 cases and 524  deaths so far this year (at about 4:00). 

(As Dr. Meryl Nass reported the development in her $Moneypox substack, providing a partial review of the press conference and stating that the numbers increased to 15,600 cases and 537 deaths by the time the WHO issued its news release two hours later. Dr. Nass also noted that Dr. Ogoina, chair of the WHO expert committee, said  . . . some deaths were in patients with advanced HIV disease.)

Dr. Maria Von Kherkove translated the emergency into dollar figures when she restated what Tedros had said (@ 36:00):

I'll just briefly address the funding question . . . Just to state what the DG said, that there's a regional plan with an initial ask of 15 million. So we were going to be looking at the regional plan, we're going to be looking at this multi-country outbreak in a response, working with all of our partners to come together with a consolidated ask. So that number will increase but right now it's an initial $15 million and we're asking countries, were asking funders, to come forward to support that implementation.

Dr. Jessica Rose, in her substack article "This is getting embarrassing for the WHO, me thinks," put the health emergency into perspective with a couple of graphs from Our World in Data, which uses the WHO's own data. This is the first graph she showed:[2]

‍This is the second graph she showed:

Dr. Rose put the numbers into context, explaining that,

[t]hat so-called “peak” at the end of July (right before US election - cough, cough) represents - according to OWID - a rate of 0.0002 deaths per million people. That’s 0.0002/1,000,000 people. That’s a 0.0000000002 chance, or a 1 in 5 billion chance of dying from mpox according to the current ‘case’ and ‘death’ rates. . . . (Emphasis added.)

Other interesting data points are those of the DRC, reportedly the most highly impacted country. Cumulative confirmed cases for the DRC, according to Our World in Data, based on the WHO's own numbers, is 3,106. Here's the graph:

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Cumulative confirmed deaths for the DRC is 10. Here's the graph:

Last minute-made disaster?

Is it possible that in the few weeks from July 14th to August 14th there were an additional 11 - 12 thousand cases and an additional 500 deaths in the DRC?

Check back for part 3 of "What is really going on with monkeypox?"

Read part 1 here.‍