The Monkeypox Puzzle

A three-part enquiry into the latest WHO-declared PHEIC™, which shows close collaboration between several well-known actors employing the tested methods (sic) of the Covid years

A few days ago, we began monkeying around (pun intended) with the WHO’s most recent declaration of a ‘public health [sic] emergency of international concern’, or PHEIC™:

Pandemicists' Roulette: the WHO-declared MPox scare according to Norway's Folkehelseinstituttet

Since then, the internet is abuzz with memes and additional information, of which perhaps the most telling indicator of phraud being committed once more is actually freely available courtesy of Our World in Data:

Note the ‘data source’ being the WHO, which leads to the even more poignant question about the hardest-hit country, the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is included in the above image, but if you’d isolate (pun intended) that country, the graph looks like this:

Note that the last entry is dated 14 July 2024, with the source of said data still listed as WHO. This begs the question why the WHO would sit on more recent data without disclosing it…yet?

Yesteryear’s Public Health Advice, Courtesy of the WHO

Speaking of the WHO’s dedicated (sic) website, it’s perhaps telling, once more, that their ‘Mpox factsheet’ was last updated on 18 April 2023 (!).

If one ventures a bit further down the WHO’s website, one may learn that their ‘public advice on recovering from mpox (monkeypox) at home’ was last updated on 2 Sept. 2022 (!!).

WHO-provided ‘advice on protecting yourself and others from mpox (monkeypox)’ dates to the same period (2 Sept. 2022) and reads as follows:

You can catch mpox through close contact with someone who has symptoms. Close contact includes skin-to-skin (e.g., touching, anal or vaginal sex); face-to-face (e.g.; talking, singing or breathing); mouth-to-skin (e.g., oral sex); and mouth-to-mouth (e.g., kissing). You can also catch mpox from contaminated bedding, towels, surfaces or objects. 

I suspect as long as you stay clear of infected people, you’re going to be quite fine; if not, see the above-given ‘advice on recovering…at home’.

As per the above, note that symptoms indicate infections.

For those with a higher proclivity for risk, WHO also offers ‘public advice for men who have sex with men on preventing mpox (monkeypox)’, which similarly dates to 22 Sept. 2022 (!!!):

While mpox can affect anyone, most cases in newly affected countries are currently among men who have sex with men. People who have sex with multiple or new partners are most at risk. This outbreak is concerning, especially for people who are unwell, their partners, families and communities. Learning more about mpox is the first step towards protecting yourself and others. Know your risk to lower your risk.

WHO on the 2024 MPox Outbreak

Of course I shall wag my finger and look sternly at WHO for not updating their website thoroughly (the above information was the first item on the result of my search for ‘WHO mpox data’; I am using DuckDuckGo).

Still, to their credit, WHO offers a bit more information about the 2024 outbreak a bit further down that result list (source):

In May 2024, a total of 646 new laboratory-confirmed cases of mpox and 15 deaths were reported to WHO from 26 countries, illustrating continuing transmission of mpox across the world. The most affected WHO regions, ordered by number of laboratory-confirmed cases, were the African Region, the European Region, the Region of the Americas, the Western Pacific Region and the South-East Asia Region. The Eastern Mediterranean region did not report any cases in May 2024.

As reporting from countries to WHO has been declining, the current reported global data most likely underestimate the actual number of mpox cases.

Within the African Region, the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported most (99%) of the confirmed mpox cases in the reporting month. With limited access to testing in rural areas, 18% of clinically compatible (reported as suspected) cases in the country are tested, therefore the confirmed case counts are underestimates of the true burden.

This issue also features:

• An update on the mpox situation in South Africa;

• An update on vaccines and immunization for mpox, with information from partners.

WHO welcomes the announcement by the Democratic Republic of the Congo national regulatory authority of the emergency authorization for use of MVA-BN and LC16 mpox vaccines, which will enable the country to import and deploy mpox vaccines for the national outbreak response.

I won’t quote from this document any further as it’s ‘current as of 31 May 2024’. Surely, WHO has more up-to-date information easily accessible lest they’ll stand accused of monkeying (sorry, couldn’t resist) with the data to declare a PHEIC™ once more.

Alas, my search results give some news media reports, UN press releases, and the like, but I specifically looked for ‘WHO mpox data’, but ‘even’ the WHO website provides ‘remarks’ and ‘statements’ instead of ‘data’.

Is the WHO Monkeying with the Data?

Even more curious (not) is the current (sic) information material. Ostensibly dated 12 Aug. 2024, it includes reporting up to 30 June 2024. It reads as follows:

In June 2024 (latest complete monthly disease surveillance data available), a total of 934 new laboratory-confirmed cases of mpox and four deaths were reported to WHO from 26 countries, illustrating continuing transmission of mpox across the world. The most affected WHO regions, ordered by number of laboratory-confirmed cases, were the African Region (567 cases), the Region of the Americas (175 cases), the European Region (100 cases), the Western Pacific Region (81 cases) and the South-East Asia Region (11 cases). The Eastern Mediterranean region did not report cases in June 2024.

True, the WHO declared a ‘Pandemic™’ for less ‘cases’ before (cue the Covid shenanigans), we may compare notes now (see above for particulars, sources):

• May 2024: ‘646 new laboratory-confirmed cases of mpox and 15 deaths were reported to WHO from 26 countries’

• June 2024: ‘934 new laboratory-confirmed cases of mpox and four deaths were reported to WHO from 26 countries’

Neither report states the time period, and both conflate the counts from 2022 through the present.

Now, we’ve all heard reports about the two main clades of the mpox PHEIC™, and we all remember that the 2022 outbreak of mpox was the less-dangerous clade II.

In that most recent WHO factsheet (dated 12 Aug. 2024), this ‘disclaimer’ of sorts was included:

All [2024] cases are linked to the expanding outbreak in East and Central Africa and all cases sequenced to date from these countries are clade I. Separately, Côte d’Ivoire is experiencing an outbreak of mpox linked to clade II MPXV and South Africa has reported two more confirmed cases.

Notice anything ‘suspicious’?

Here’s a bit more: on the first page of the most current info spreadsheet (dated 12 Aug. 2024) we read:

Laboratory-confirmed cases: 99,176
Deaths: 208
Countries/areas/territories: 116

On page 2, the following clarification is given, which, to me, adds to the above-voices skepticism about the WHO’s intentions:

From 1 January 2022 through 30 June 2024, a cumulative total of 99 176 laboratory-confirmed cases of mpox, including 208 deaths, were reported to WHO from 116 [footnote anchor 2, see below] countries/territories/areas (hereafter ‘countries’) in all six WHO Regions (Table 1). A total of 934 new cases were reported in June 2024, comparable to the number of new cases reported for May 2024, including some cases retrospectively reported for previous months.

Oh, look: the WHO conflates clades I and II, as well as the 2022 and 2024 outbreak(s).

Footnote 2 reads as follows:

The number of reporting countries and territories has changed from 117 to 116 because cases from Puerto Rico are now reported as part of the cases from the United States of America.

I’m quite certain that a self-identified

el gato malo

might object to this one.

And then there’s the below table, which kinda gives away the game here:

Note that the word missing from all these tabulated ‘cases’, deaths, etc. is cumulative (it’s in the first line in the preceding paragraph).

Note further that that are in excess of 90,000 ‘cases’ in the Americas and Europe combined vs. a bit over 4,000 in the whole of Africa (with its ‘sub-Saharan’ regions particularly affected).

Note, finally, that the trend as of 30 June 2024 is down (-3%) worldwide, with 91% of ‘cases’ coming from the Americas and Europe. Still, there is but one region where such ‘cases’ have increased from May to June 2024—Africa.

So, if I were of a particularly conspiratorial mood today, I’d say this is about ‘helping™’ African countries to access ‘testing, surveillance, and vaccines’, all provided by Western corporate behemoths, such as Bavarian Nordic and their ilk.

Evidence thereof is provided by the WHO themselves, specifically this list of ‘Therapeutics licensed or under development for Mpox’, dated 16 Aug. 2024. So far, it contains but four candidates, but I suspect it will grow longer soon:

• Cidofovir

• VIGIV

• Brincidofovir

• Tecovirimat

So, that’s it for now; in part two, we’ll explore a number of key events leading up to the present WHO-declared PHEIC™, and in part three we’ll take a look at some of ‘the Science™’ behind this PHEIC™.

Stay frosty.