Ming Inspector 丨 Zheng Shujing
At a glance
The news that Bill Gates predicted an outbreak of monkeypox virus in 2021 to help Pfizer prepare a vaccine lacked empirical evidence. Gates did make comments on topics like "responding to pandemics and bioterrorism attacks" in 2021, but didn't mention the word "monkeypox," and Pfizer's catalog doesn't have vaccine products related to monkeypox viruses.
According to a number of media reports in Europe and the United States, the US health department has ordered 13 million doses of JYNNEOS vaccine from Bavarian Nordic Company. The vaccine is one of only two vaccines approved for smallpox virus prevention in the United States and is currently the only vaccine currently licensed specifically for monkeypox prevention in the United States.
Event background
Recently, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Spain, Australia and other countries have reported confirmed cases of monkeypox, and the United States and Europe are investigating this and ordering vaccines to prevent it.
Weibo, Twitter and other platforms have rumors that The American entrepreneur and Founder of Microsoft Bill Gates has long predicted the monkeypox virus outbreak, and Pfizer has received Gates' help last year and has prepared a vaccine - suggesting that the spread of monkeypox cases is artificially designed.
Mingcha
Gates' prophecy?
Searching for keywords such as "Pfizer Bill Gates monkeypox" on Google cannot find authoritative messages related to this. Still, the idea of linking Gates to the virus is not out of thin air. In November 2021, Gates participated in an interview organised by the Policy Exchange think tank to have a conversation with Jeremy Hunt, chairman of the UK's Health Special Commission. In response to Hunter's question about how global governments should prepare for the next pandemic that could come in the future, Gates said he wanted to write a book called "We're Ready for the Next Pandemic" within five years, but it would require tens of billions of dollars from governments including the United Kingdom and the United States.
At the same time, Gates spoke of the need for a World Health Organization-level task force that could play what he calls a "bacteriological game" to prepare countries for bioterrorism attacks. For this reason, he gave an example: "What if a bioterrer brought smallpox to 10 airports? ”
Screenshot of Gates' conversation with Hunter.
It should be emphasized that in this conversation posted by the "policy exchange" on his YouTube account, Gates did not mention any words related to "monkeypox". In addition, although Gates' remarks were later reprinted and reported by several media outlets as "Gates warned terrorists that terrorists might use smallpox as weapons to launch bioterrorist attacks", the scene he mentioned in the conversation was a WHO team simulating the possibility of such an attack, rather than a prediction of what would actually happen.
In fact, Gates has a long history of attention to pandemics and bioterrorist attacks. In 2015, at an event hosted by the U.S. media group TED, Gates made a point about the 2014 Ebola outbreak, arguing that the world was not ready for the next pandemic. He pointed out that a terrible virus can bring more disaster to humanity than a nuclear war.
In 2015, Gates spoke at the TED conference, saying the world was not ready for the next pandemic.
Pfizer monkeypox vaccine?
So, did Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company known for producing mRNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, really "foresee" the emergence of this round of monkeypox cases and prepare vaccines in advance? Under the "Products" column of Pfizer's official website, there is a complete list of drugs and vaccines developed by the company, with a total of more than 300 products, but after verification, there are no vaccine products related to the so-called "monkeypox".
Screenshot of the product catalog page of the Pfizer website.
According to a recent report by Fortune magazine, Newsweek and the British newspaper The Independent, following the confirmation of the first case of monkeypox infection in the United States, the US health department is currently ordering the JYNNEOS vaccine from Bavarian Nordic, a total of 13 million doses, with a total value of $119 million.
JYNNEOS, also known as Impvanex, is currently the only vaccine currently licensed in the United States specifically for the prevention of monkeypox. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the vaccine for use in people aged 18 years and older in September 2019, and the vaccine was filed with the European Medicines Agency earlier, dating back to 2013. In addition, according to the official website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the JYNNEOS vaccine is also one of only two vaccines currently approved for smallpox virus prevention in the United States.
The FDA's official website published a screenshot of its approval of the JYNNEOS vaccine.
As we all know, humans have eliminated the smallpox virus for more than 40 years, why did the US FDA approve the use of the "anti-smallpox vaccine" in 2019? In a press release on the approval of the JYNNEOS vaccine, Peter Marks, M.D., director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, mentioned: "After the global plan to eliminate smallpox, the World Health Organization demonstrated the eradication of naturally occurring smallpox disease in 1980. Routine vaccination of the U.S. public stopped in 1972 after the disease was eradicated in the United States. As a result, most of the population in the United States and around the world is not immune to the smallpox virus... Although naturally occurring smallpox disease is no longer a global threat, the deliberate release of this highly contagious virus can have devastating effects. Today's approval reflects the U.S. government's commitment to preparedness by supporting the development of safe and effective vaccines, therapeutic agents, and other medical countermeasures. ”
It is also worth noting that data from the FDA and CDC show that there were cases of monkeypox infection on the U.S. mainland in both 2003 and 2021.
The CDC website explains the principle of JYNNEOS, saying that it is administered as a live virus that is non-replicating, requiring two subcutaneous injections, each time at an interval of 4 weeks. The CDC emphasizes that people vaccinated with JYNNEOS are not considered vaccinated until they have completed two doses of the vaccine.
Screenshot of cdc's official website.
In summary, there is no evidence for the news that "Bill Gates predicted an outbreak of monkeypox virus in 2021 and helped Pfizer prepare a vaccine". Gates did make comments on topics like "responding to pandemics and bioterrorism attacks" in 2021, but didn't mention anything related to "monkeypox," and Pfizer's catalog doesn't have vaccine products related to monkeypox viruses.
According to a number of media reports in Europe and the United States, the US health department has ordered 13 million doses of JYNNEOS vaccine from Bavarian Nordic Company. The vaccine is one of only two vaccines approved for smallpox virus prevention in the United States and is currently the only vaccine currently licensed specifically for monkeypox prevention in the United States.
Senior Editor of this issue Zhou Yuhua