AAP FACTCHECK – The United States government agency responsible for regulating medicines has admitted there is no evidence to prove the mpox virus exists, according to a claim circulating on social media.
The claim is false. It’s based on a misrepresentation of a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.
The comments are made in a Facebook post referring to “newly unsealed documents” that supposedly reveal “an explosive confession” from the FDA.
The post says the documents were obtained by someone called Christine Massey from an FoI request.
The caption continues: “According to one document published by Massey, the FDA admits that there is ‘zero scientific evidence’ to prove that the ‘monkeypox virus’ even exists.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) began referring to the virus as mpox instead of monkeypox in November 2022, in response to racist and stigmatising language about the disease online.
The post links to an article on the site Slay News, which in turn provides a link to a Substack article by Ms Massey.
Her article is headlined: “FDA confesses: zero scientific evidence of ‘monkeypox virus’ or contagion… not even a ‘genome’ found by anyone… anywhere.”
Ms Massey claims the FDA “officially confessed” it has no records scientifically proving or providing evidence of the virus’s existence.
In the post, she sets out her request for “all studies in the possession/custody/control of the FDA, authored by anyone, anywhere: 1. – that scientifically prove/provide evidence of the existence of any alleged ‘monkeypox virus’ …”.
The FDA’s response points out the agency does not regulate or treat viruses, and therefore it has nothing that meets the specific request.
“The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation. Therefore we have no responsive records.”
Nowhere in the FDA response does it say there is no scientific evidence of the mpox virus.
An FDA spokesperson told AAP FactCheck: “FDA’s response [to the FoI request] … has been inappropriately characterised in the articles you mention. The [FoI] request referenced sought specific documents for which there were no responsive records.
“Mpox is a well-documented virus with known health consequences. The FDA continues to work in coordination with our public health partners across the globe to respond to this virus.”
In 2022, the FDA approved a vaccine for mpox.
There is ample evidence that mpox is real. In 2023, a systematic review of studies looked at 2352 confirmed cases of mpox, while another review in the same year examined epidemiological modelling studies focused on the virus, including an overview of its biology and clinical presentation in humans.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker, of Otago University, told AAP FactCheck experts were able to ascertain that mpox was “real” using a variety of methods, including clinical observation, epidemiology (investigating how the infection is spreading and how it can be controlled), culture methods (growing it) and electron microscopy (looking at it).
Increasingly, Professor Baker said, scientists are using molecular methods based on polymerase chain reaction tests and sequencing to identify combinations of nucleic acids (RNA/DNA) only seen with specific microorganisms.
“All of these methods have been used to build up knowledge about smallpox, and to a lesser extent mpox, which was only identified for the first time in 1958,” he said.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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