Alex Jones Unfounded Claims That Monkeypox Outbreak Due To Covid-19 Vaccines – Forbes

Alex Jones, the founder of Infowars and seller of supplements, is now suggesting that Covid-19 ... [+] vaccines are behind the monkeypox outbreak. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

Well, it was only a matter of time before someone started blaming the Covid-19 vaccines for the current ongoing monkeypox outbreak. After all, since early 2021, seemingly every time a new health problem has reached the news, some politicians, TV personalities, and anonymous social media accounts have tried to link the new problem back to the Covid-19 vaccines. For example, on May 1, I covered for Forbes how some folks were trying to connect the hepatitis outbreak among children to Covid-19 vaccination. They were doing this despite the minor detail that many of these children didnt even receive Covid-19 vaccines.

So what Alex Jones tried to do on a recent episode of his InfoWars show shouldnt have come as a surprise. Jones, who by the way is not medical doctor or other type of scientist yet has peddled supplements and other health products, tried to somehow connect the monkeypox outbreak with Astra-Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 vaccines. If youve been Jonesing for a clip of this moment in Joness InfoWars show, Florida lawyer Ron Filipkowski provided one with the following tweet:

As you can see, Joness primary argument was that the monkeypox outbreak has been affecting the same countries where people have been receiving the Astra-Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines. Of course, that aint too compelling an argument. A lot has been going on in the 12 countries that have had monkeypox cases so far, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). For example, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, U.K., and the U.S. all have places that serve hot dogs as well. Yet, frankly, you dont seem to hear anyone wondering whether hot dogs may be the source of the monkeypox outbreak.

Jones went on to claim that these two Covid-19 vaccines are virus vectors that inject the genome of a chimpanzee in to your cells and then orders your cells to replicate under those orders. Umm, that would be correct except for the fact that it is completely wrong. As Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, pointed out in the following tweets, Jones seemed to be injecting quite a lot of what-the-bleep into his InfoWars segment:

Hotez emphasized that the J&J vaccine doesnt even use a chimpanzee adenovirus as Jones claimed and instead uses a human adenovirus. Both vaccines use non-replicating adenoviruses, meaning viruses that are not able to reproduce. Oh, and they dont inject the genome of a chimpanzee in to your cells, as Jones claimed.

In fact, Jones seemed to be monkeying around way too much. As I described on May 8 for Forbes, despite its name, monkeypox really doesnt have a whole lot to do with monkeys. As Hotez explained, the monkeypox name came from the fact that the virus which causes monkeypox was first found in 1958 in a NHP, which stands for non-human primate and not no hot dogs please. Although this virus can infect monkeys, it mainly circulates among rodents. And the virus certainly wont turn you into a monkey should you get infected.

So, why is Jones trying to find another cause for the monkeypox outbreak when the real cause is already pretty darn clear? The culprit is a double-stranded DNA virus thats part of the Orthopoxvirus genus and the Poxviridae family. This is by no means a mystery virus. Scientists have known that this virus can cause monkeypox ever since the early 1970s, or over 1600 Scaramuccis ago.

Plus, Joness argument breaks down further when you realize that not everyone affected by the monkeypox outbreak even received the AstraZeneca or J&J Covid-19 vaccines. For example, heres what Forbes contributor Vicky Forster, PhD, tweeted a monkeypox case in the U.K.:

This is shoddy conspiracy theory work. Again, if you are going to spread a conspiracy theory, try to tie up loose ends first. At least make sure first that everyone affected by the outbreak actually got the Covid-19 vaccines.

Not surprisingly, scientific facts have not prevented various social media accounts, many of which are anonymous, from attempting to spread this Covid-19-vaccine-causing-the-monkeypox-outbreak conspiracy theory. For example, an account calling itself TruthSeek tried to suggest that bullous pemphigoid, a very rare potential side effect of the Covid-19 vaccines, is something very like monkeypox:

From Twitter

Umm, first of all, beware of anything or anyone that tries to call itself Truth-something these days. Isnt that a bit like someone choosing sexy or beautiful as a nickname on a dating site? You probably arent going to say, oh, that person must be sexy. If you claim that you want to seek the truth, at least identify who you truly are.

Secondly, any attempt to suggest that bullous pemphigoid and monkeypox are the same thing would be full of lesions. The two are not like each other. Bullous pemphigoid is an autoimmune skin condition that results in large, fluid-filled blisters that tend to develop on crease on your skin on your lower abdomen, upper thighs and armpits. Equating bullous pemphigoid with monkeypox simply because the latter may have fluid-filled lesions at some point would be like equating acne with monkeypox simply because the latter may have pus-filled lesions at some point. Youd have a lot of freaked out teenagers if you were to announce that having any lesions with pus means a monkeypox diagnosis. The lesions of monkeypox, bullous pemphigoid, and acne are all very different in their appearance, configuration, progression, and associated symptoms, although all three might impact your chances of getting a prom date.

Over the years, Jones certainly has promoted his share of conspiracy theories. As I covered for Forbes back in 2018, these conspiracy theories have included claims that the Sandy Hook mass shooting was staged, that vaccines cause autism, and that the government has been using chemicals to turn people and frogs gay (because, why not, right?) In fact, the spread-conspiracy-theories-without-providing-any-real-evidence thing has become quite a commonly-used trope by not only Jones but many others as well. So has the blame-everything-on-Covid-19-vaccines trope ever since the Covid-19 vaccines came out in late 2020. Therefore, get ready for even more monkeypox business from anti-vaxxers and other pseudoscience folks in the coming week or so.

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Alex Jones Unfounded Claims That Monkeypox Outbreak Due To Covid-19 Vaccines - Forbes