No, the mpox virus has no link to the Covid-19 vaccine or gay sex • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] I'm joined in the studio by France 24's verica beel today's topic is empo the virus currently with an outbreak across several African countries that's triggered the who's highest alert but that's not just the only thing that's spreading as there's also been a spike in online disinformation verica can you clear up these false claims for us yes indeed yinka I can one of the top fake news stories surging online at the moment is the claim that empo symptoms are linked to the side effect of the covid-19 vaccine and this uh all links back to uh claims involving a video of a German respiratory doctor Dr Wulf gang vog um who said in an interview that he believes the symptoms of empo are the same as shingles which are which he says is a covid-19 vaccine side effect in the same interview he went on to say that he and he accused the the pharmaceutical industry of creating empo um by scaring people in order to try and get business so let's take a listen to that viral video that is uh going uh that is circulating all over the internet now transparency for our viewers this is a dubbed in English uh extract of the interview it's not in the original uh originally recorded German language but this is the video that people are sharing online with these false claims um and I saw this video dubbed in a slew of different languages from Japanese to to French to Spanish as well um but this is the English extra of that interview of the doctor if Regional blisters occur they're linked to severe pain in Monkey pox For Heaven's Sake this is the typical clinical picture for shingles now there are several uh things in fact to unpack here uh and the first one being that in fact this interview that we saw there this is in fact 2 years old it was filmed back in 2022 uh when Dr uh vodar did an interview uh with Austrian broadcaster au1 um it is a far right Austrian channel that's actually known for spreading misinformation and promoting conspiracy theories um secondly there's no evidence in the full 45 minute uh interview that he did with them that where where he provided evidence in order to back up his claims um if we also have a little bit more background uh on the doctor as well Dr vodg he's actually known for his denial if you will of covid-19 he has previously drawn some pretty strong critic for comments that he's made about the covid-19 vaccines being responsible for infertility in women he's also gone on to say that the covid-19 virus was created for hype um and he has been fact checked several times over the last few years for his claims surrounding covid but regardless of uh the person making those claims uh and the channel that it was filmed on and the fact that it is old the two uh the two viruses that we're talking about in these claims empo and shingles uh have no scientific link whatsoever they are two from two very very different virus uh amilies empx is part of the pox virus family whereas shingles uh is a type of herpes and they do have different shapes and structures as well uh that we can see there um now they both do cause lesions on the skin that is correct um moox however does cause more of like a postur blister type lesion uh whereas shingles actually manifests itself more as like a rash uh on on skin as well now um I know that the claim uh mentioned uh a link between shingles uh and M and empo but it also did mention that as being a side effect of covid-19 but there is no scientific link uh either between empo and Co in fact we already know so much about the empo virus uh it's been around for decades it was first uh detected back in the Democratic Republic of the Congo back in the 1970s so we have a lot of information about empo already and how to control it well before the covid uh Health Cris Crisis began um also lastly yinka um we have been seeing fact checking by news agencies and scientists around claims linked like this for years for example this fact check here by news agency Reuters is from 2022 we've been seeing claims like this uh go go uh circulate all across the internet for years so what we have here uh is very much of a rehashing of those old false claims there in order to uh Stoke up fear and spread misinformation and verica there's also been an upswing of online homophobia as well that's being linked to these false um empo theories tells us tell us more about that yes that is correct some social media uh users have dismissed the risk of Contracting uh empo saying that it's only transmissible between uh between gay men uh in specific now this has led to a surge of homophobic and even uh in some places transphobic content as well uh some like this one for example these are just a couple of the examples that I found lurking on X this one for example has actually created a link between not just uh moox and gay men but also a link with pedophilia so that is extremely uh disturbing as well um and although empx can be uh transmitted through sexual contact there is no link in fact to sexual orientation whatsoever now according to the wh there is a multitude of ways to contract empo we have close contact including skin to- skin um and sexual contact there's also mouth to mouth there's even face to face which is talking or breathing near someone um but you can also contract empo from contaminated objects such as clothing or linen uh according to the wh um so enox can for example be transmitted uh from a mother caring for her sick child or even just between a heterosexual couple it has nothing to do with sexual orientation at all so what we can do here is Mark these claims uh as false and