Mpox has nothing to do with the Covid-19 vaccines

Several posts on Facebook claim that mpox (the disease caused by the monkeypox virus) is actually a side effect of the Covid-19 vaccines. This is not true.

According to the NHS, mpox causes blisters which are sometimes confused with chickenpox, but it can only be caused by a monkeypox infection and has nothing to do with Covid vaccines.

A significant increase in the number of cases of mpox in several African countries was recently declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO). Full Fact wrote several articles about the disease during an earlier international outbreak, in 2022.

Bad information can spread quickly on social media and may be harmful if people use it to make decisions about their health.

What the posts say

We’ve seen claims about mpox and the Covid vaccines in several different forms.

In one case, a post shared a sequence of screenshots and links about mpox and Covid vaccination, saying that people were “lying to cover up the damage they’ve caused”.

Another post shared two screenshots showing an image of a blistered hand, attributed to shingles in one case and mpox in another. The post falsely claims: “Coincidentally, shingles is a well known Covax side effect”. (Covax was an international project to develop and share Covid vaccines.)

Other posts have recently shared an old article from the Exposé website, which we have fact checked many times before. The article, which was published in 2022, falsely claims in its headline: “Monkeypox is a coverup for damage done to Immune System by COVID Vaccination resulting in Shingles, Autoimmune Blistering Disease & Herpes Infection”.

Why they’re wrong

In simple terms, mpox is a disease caused by an infection with the monkeypox virus, a variety of orthopoxvirus. Other related viruses include cowpox and smallpox. People catch mpox through contact with an infected person or animal. It is thought to be more common among small rodents than among monkeys.

As we have said before, there is no monkeypox in the Covid vaccine, meaning it is impossible to catch mpox from it.

Although mpox may be mistaken for chickenpox or shingles, these are different diseases caused by a completely different virus—varicella zoster.

We wrote several fact checks explaining this during the last outbreak in 2022.

We have approached the Exposé for comment.