PolitiFact – There is no evidence that the virus behind the monkeypox outbreak has leaked from a lab in Wuhan, #PolitiFact #evidence #virus #monkeypox #outbreak #leaked #Wuhan #lab Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
As countries that rarely see cases of monkeypox struggle to contain an ongoing outbreak, some social media users have promoted what seems like an oddly familiar theory: The monkeypox virus came from a lab in Wuhan, China.
Social media users like comedian Jimmy Dore, who has spread health-related misinformation in the past, suggested such a connection.
“Wow. The NIH in the United States and the Wuhan Viral Institute were also working on monkeypox, and now there is an outbreak of monkeypox,” Dore said in a video shared on Facebook. “What are the chances of that? I say 50-50. Now when there’s a new outbreak, there’s a 50-50 chance that it started in a Wuhan lab funded by Dr. Fauci and the NIH.
Dore’s co-host, comedian Kurt Metzger, replied, “I mean, not even another virology lab accident? The same one?”
The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to fight false news and misinformation in the news feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
First, there is no evidence that the monkeypox outbreak that prompted the World Health Organization to shut down on July 23 explain it’s a “public health emergency of international concern” has some link to a lab accident in China.
This misleading idea harks back to unproven theories about the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the start of the pandemic, some have claimed that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, could have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. While the exact origin of the virus behind COVID-19 is still unknown, growing body from Research suggests it naturally came out of a Wuhan market. Some researchers are exploring the coronavirus lab leak theory as a possibility.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been involved in research related to monkeypox, but the suggestion that this work is related to the current outbreak of monkeypox has no basis in reality.
Experts told PolitiFact there is no evidence that the virus that led to the current monkeypox outbreak came from a lab in Wuhan, China. Instead, they said the virus can be traced to an existing outbreak in West Africa.
Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease, meaning it is passed from animals to humans, said David Robertson, chief of viral genomics and bioinformatics at the Center for Virus Research at the Medical Research Council-University of Glasgow. The disease is caused by the monkeypox virus, also known as MPXV.
“Current international cases all represent human-to-human transmission of MPXV and are related to an ongoing outbreak in West Africa,” he said.
In May, scientists in Portugal wrote on the forum virological that early analysis of the virus’ genetic material “indicates that the 2022 virus belongs to the West African clade.” (A clade is a group of organisms descended from a common ancestor.) They also found that the virus responsible for the outbreak is “most closely related to viruses linked to the export of monkeypox virus from Nigeria to several countries in 2018.” and 2019, namely the United Kingdom, Israel and Singapore.”
Mark Slifka, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Oregon Health and Science University’s School of Medicine, said the virus has been sequenced and linked to the West African clade.
“Based on these genetics, it probably originated from this region of Africa,” Slifka said. “There is no evidence to suggest that the virus circulating internationally has escaped from a laboratory.”
Robertson agreed: “There is no evidence, none at all, that the MPXV variant that caused the recent cases was generated in a lab.”
In contrast, he said there is “strong evidence” that the virus has been circulating in West Africa for years.
Connection to Wuhan lab leads to claims of Monkeypox lab leak
Monkeypox was indeed studied by researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“In Wuhan, experiments have taken place with PCR testing of monkeypox viruses,” reported Deutsche Welle, a German media outlet, in a fact check. “This is beyond dispute.” The story linked to a study which was first published online in February 2022.
The nine scientists who authored the study mentioned an affiliation with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and four noted an additional affiliation with the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The research aimed to assemble a fragment of the monkeypox virus genome that could be used as a template for PCR testing, which the scientists described as “the gold standard” for the detection of viruses classified as orthopox virus, of which monkeypox is one.
Experts said lab work with monkeypox virus is usually highly regulated, with strict protocols that minimize the risk of accidental infection.
Labs “actually pose an extremely low risk for the emergence of new viruses,” says Robertson of the Center for Virus Research. “Nature, on the other hand, is a very high risk and a constant source of new viruses.”
He said viruses have often arisen naturally and will continue to arise naturally.
“With our highly interconnected world, we need to get much better at controlling local outbreaks before they become international occurrences,” Robertson said.
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