Mpox is already being hailed a hoax by the racist far right

  • Post last modified:August 16, 2024
  • Reading time:8 mins read


On Wednesday 14 August, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that Mpox is now a global emergency. Of course the far right are going wild – because they don’t care about dead Black, LGBTQ+, or disabled people – and it must be a conspiracy.

What is Mpox?

Unlike Covid-19, Mpox is not airborne and in order for it to be transmitted, it requires close skin-to-skin to spread. It was previously known as monkeypox, and symptoms include a fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, and a rash.

A global emergency ultimately means that the virus might spill across international borders – which is already has done. The virus has already spread to Sweden.

WHO said there have been more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths in Africa this year. This figure already exceeds last year’s. 96% of these cases have been in Congo, but scientists are now afraid that a new variant could be spread more easily. As of last week, the Africa CDC confirmed that it had now spread to at least 13 African countries.

Far-right conspiracies

Obviously, the far-right will take whatever they can grab at and spin it into a conspiracy theory.

From Katie Hopkins to Tommy Robinson – the usual suspects were all at it on X:

Some far-right conspiracy nuts even claimed Mpox was a known side effect of the Covid-19 vaccine:

Others have claimed Mpox is a punishment from God because as we all know, homosexuality is a huge sin and all of us gays are going to hell:

The far right made it clear during Covid-19 that they do not care about the deaths of black, disabled, or LGBTQ+ individuals. They are doing so once again.

Disabled women are 2.4 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than women without. This increases to 11.3 times for women aged 65 and under. This statistic is depressing, but unfortunately the ONS says it is conservative at best. As Mpox is a relatively new disease, we do not have statistics on how it may disproportionately affect people with disabilities. However, all disabled folk know that even minor illnesses can exacerbate and flare up pre-existing health conditions.

We saw during Covid the disproportionate impact the virus had on Black communities. Again, the racist far right won’t care about that because it doesn’t fit their narrative.

Racist corporate media

Several news outlets, including Sky News and Al Jazeera released reports detailing the first reported Mpox case in Sweden. They used a photo of a Black person – when less than 1% of the Swedish population is Black. Already, the media are helping the far-right into scapegoating non-white people for the spreading of the disease:

So, as Michael Rosen kindly pointed out:

Far right ideology is a virus in itself, but unfortunately even our best scientists haven’t come up with a vaccine for that yet.

Feature image via Katie Hopkins OFFICIAL/Youtube 





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