11 Monkeypox Myths, Debunked by Health Experts
- “Experts are concerned that misinformation about monkeypox can prevent people from protecting themselves.
- Monkeypox can affect people of any age, gender, or sexual orientation. It is not just affecting men who have sex with other men.
- Though monkeypox is not a new virus, the situation is evolving. Still, experts say there are ways to stay safe and informed.
Health misinformation has become so rampant and harmful that U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy issued an advisory about it in 2021.
“Health misinformation is a serious threat to public health. It can cause confusion, sow mistrust, harm people’s health, and undermine public health efforts,” Murthy said in the advisory.
Now, the U.S. is dealing with a new emergency: Monkeypox.
Experts say misinformation about it is circulating quickly, including how it spreads and who can get the virus, and they’re concerned.
“In any outbreak of a new or unfamiliar disease, it is important to get good, high quality information out to people,” says Dr. Linda Yancey, an infectious disease specialist at Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston. “As we saw in COVID, the rumor mill will kick into high gear, and…people won’t always have the information they need to protect themselves and keep safe.”
To help provide accurate information about monkeypox, Healthline spoke with medical experts to debunk 11 troubling myths currently circulating about the virus.
Myth: Monkeypox is a sexually transmitted infection
COVID-19 vaccine myth: There are 4 vaccines.
While perhaps only 4 have been approved by the FDA in the US, there are more than this in use in the world. An adjacent country to the US, Canada has approved 6 with others under review. Source
I also think it's best for people to look to local public health agencies for information, rather than relying on US centric ones only as this article recommends. One good reason for this - access to vaccines has different criteria in different places.
I think this article was a bit irresponsible in the statements, particularly when we are dealing with public health issues which go beyond the US borders. @zealousGrace5023 I appreciate you didn't copy those parts from the article to here, but still disappointed with the article in general.
@zealousGrace5023 Thank you for sharing this information! It's important to spread awareness so that we don't have another craziness that was Covid. Do you know why monkeypox is spreading more nowadays?
@fruityPond7887 Capitalism, racism, nationalism for it being more common in people. Stigma related to MSM (using the medical abbreviation often used) which meant once we knew it was spreading outside of Africa we weren't good at identifying it and helping the LGBTQ2S+ with it as much as we could.
Epidemiologists have brought up monkeypox as a concern for years, as it has been popping up in people in some countries in Africa more frequently. The virus was able to adapt to spread better amongst people, and not just because of what the virus does, but it's also how it changed based on what we look for.
If you look at old information about what monkeypox infections look like, that's not completely applicable to what we are now seeing. Not everyone is developing symptoms before the pox appear, and those who do have symptoms they are typically more mild. The pox themselves are different too. In many cases, it actually appears like an STI. Some of those who have had it recently said they guessed it was herpes or syphilis at first. Some mostly have the pox in the rectum or genital areas. Others first assumed their first pox mark was just a pimple on their face. Timing also wasn't great, there were a few 'superspreader' events at gay venues months before gay pride celebrations.
If fomites are a way what is circulating can spread fairly easily I suspect we could see most affected populations go from MSM to children as well as to those using shelters or living in communal settings.
