On May 7 the United Kingdom reported a confirmed case of the infection caused by the monkeypox virus. Since then over 550 cases have been reported in 30 countries none of whom are in the regions of west and central Africa where the disease is endemic, according to the World Health Organization. Countries with confirmed cases include the UK and several in mainland Europe, as well as the United States and Canada.As with the novel coronavirus, social media is now buzzing with claims about the monkeypox virus and, as with the coronavirus, many of these are not supported by the facts.These include claims of a link between the AstraZeneca Covid 19 vaccine sold in India as Covishield and monkeypox because an adenovirus used in the former contains a type of virus derived from chimpanzees.Below we fact check three of these claims:Claim: A Facebook post on May 26 by a page titled Louisiana Cajun Recipes claims a link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and monkeypox. nbsp;The information in the post is genuine it is from a UK government website on information about the AstraZeneca vaccine.The post flags Recombinant, replication deficient chimpanzee adenovirus vector encoding the SARS CoV2 spike glycoprotein...
and suggests the disease be called chimpanzeepox .Fact: Yes, the AstraZeneca vaccine does contain a virus from chimpanzees. No, it is not from the same family responsible for monkeypox, which comes from the line of viruses called orthopoxviruses that cause small poxAccording to UK based fact checker Full Fact, adenoviruses are common viruses that typically cause a mild cold or flu like illness. The virus in the AstraZeneca vaccine has been weakened and modified to ensure it does not cause a disease.It is used as a vector to carry genetic info on Covid which can be used by the body to create antibodies and because it generates a strong immune response.Claim: The disease caused by the monkeypox virus is actually shingles.This was from a post by Twitter handle ProjectTabs that said confirmed that 95 of Monkeypox cases are really shingles in Canada and attached a screenshot of a CTV News headline to back its claim.