Monkey Pox -Yawn
Is anyone even surprised?
Well, here we go again. I saw this coming in November, as no doubt many others did. Great timing ahead of the WHO/WHA meeting to amend the IHR and discuss a Pandemic Treaty
I wrote just the other day
And history seems to suggest that after the International Health Regulations are revised and the Pandemic Treaty gets approved the next Pandemics will be Bigger and more Profitable
What could the next one be? Monkey Pox, African Swine Fever, Small Pox, Influenza?
Researchers conducting surveillance on pigs in China found genotype 4 (G4) Eurasian avian-like H1N1 viruses have been detected since 2016, as they reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The strain has genes from a mix of pig, avian and human viruses and genes from the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic virus. Genetic material can mix in an animal host through a process called reassortment, creating a new virus, according to Flor M. Munoz, M.D., M.Sc., FAAP, a member of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases.
The new strain appears to grow well in human airway epithelial cells and possesses “all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans,” according to the study.
Testing of 338 swine workers in China found 10% had evidence of a past infection. There are no reports of person-to-person transmission, but experts say the virus may continue to adapt and mutate.
In July 2020, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called the straina “potential pandemic concern,” because of its novelty. Humans don’t have immunity to this new virus, and it is too different from seasonal flu vaccine strains for these vaccines to be effective. However, it has not been found in humans or pigs in the U.S.
https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/8160
https://nemo.guide/blog/2022/05/16/swine-fever-wild-boar-piglet-found-decapitated-in-rome-park/
Monkey Pox
https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/16/four-new-cases-of-monkeypox-identified-in-the-uk-bringing-total-to-seven
Small Pox
Your guess is a good as mine
Well , I guess we know now.
Timeline mostly extracted from Whitney Webbs article
May 2011, SIGA was given a no-bid contract worth about $433 million to develop and produce 1.7 million doses of anti-viral drug for smallpox (TPOXX)
2017-Bill Gates’ speech to the Munich Security Conference, where he used to the threat specifically of smallpox to argue that “health security” and “international security” be merged.
“[…] the next epidemic could originate on the computer screen of a terrorist intent on using genetic engineering to create a synthetic version of the smallpox virus […]”
2017-, The smallpox vaccine known as ACAM2000, which can also be used to treat monkeypox, originally produced by Sanofi, was acquired by Emergent Biosolutions .
As a result, the company has an essential monopoly over smallpox vaccines as ACAM2000 is “the only vaccine licensed by the FDA for active immunization against smallpox disease for people determined to be at high risk of smallpox infection
2018-TPOXX was first approved by the FDA and was approved by the European Medicine Agency (EMA) this past January.
TPOXX is only used to treat active smallpox or monkeypox infection, not prevent it.
2019-Sep 24, A 2 dose vaccine is approved under the brand name Jynneos in the U.S. with a label that also specifically covers monkeypox. Because monkeypox virus is closely related to the variola virus that causes smallpox, smallpox vaccines can also protect against monkeypox, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says.
The FDA granted the approval of Jynneos to Bavarian Nordic A/S.
2021-March 17, the Munich Security Conference hosted a simulationof a global pandemic caused by a “genetically engineered monkeypox virus.”
This third annual tabletop exercise organized by NTI’s Global Biological Policy and Programs team (NTI | bio) in conjunction with the MSC is part of the MSC’s “Beyond Westlessness: The Road to Munich 2021” campaign.
The exercise scenario: a localized bioweapons attack with a genetically engineered monkeypox virus begins in the fictional country of Brinia. Over 18 months, the scenario evolves into a globally catastrophic pandemic, leaving 40% of the world’s population infected and over a quarter billion people dead.
Key themes emerged regarding the need to strengthen international pandemic risk assessment and early warning systems; to establish clear triggers for national-level anticipatory response and aggressive early action to slow disease transmission and save lives; to reduce biotechnology risks and enhance oversight of life sciences research; and to promote new and stronger international health security preparedness financing mechanisms
2021-April, The Emergent COVID vaccine factory shut down by the FDA. 400 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines were discarded due to a Quality Control error. They were allowed to reopen in August before the government terminated the contract
2021-April Emergent Biosolutions announced that it would acquire the exclusive worldwide rights to the “first FDA-approved Smallpox Oral Antiviral for all ages” from the company Chimerix. The drug, called TEMBEXA, is only for the treatment of smallpox, which the company refers to as “a high priority public health threat.”
The press release on the company’s acquisition of TEMBEXA states that multi-million US government contracts for the product are anticipated.
2021-June, The FDA formally approved TEMBEXA
2021-Nov 4- Bill Gates’ comments on the prospects of smallpox bioterrorism during a November 4th, 2021 interview
2021-Nov 16, a CDC/FBI investigation into 15 suspicious vials labeled “smallpox” at a Merck facility in Philadelphia.
2022-May, As concern over monkeypox has risen, so too have the shares of Emergent Biosolutions and SIGA Technologies. Both companies essentially have monopolies in the US market, and other markets as well, on smallpox vaccines and treatments.
SIGA, which produces a smallpox treatment, known by its brand name TPOXX. It is SIGA’s only product.
2022-May 17
2022-May 19-The FDAapprovedan intravenous version of TPOXX . Overall, SIGA has received over $1 billion from the US government to develop TPOXX.
Given that the majority of the company’s business is tied to US government contracts, the loss of this contract, and the accompanying poor publicity, the news that its smallpox vaccine may soon be of international interest is likely seen as a godsend by the company.
2022-May 19, Bavarian Nordic, a bio tech company that develops vaccines, announced that the U.S. had exercised options under an existing contract to order $119 million worth of a freeze-dried version of the Jynneos smallpox vaccine, which can help prevent smallpox and monkeypox disease in adults.
2022-May 20, The World Health Organization is convening a group of leading experts for an emergency meeting about the ongoing monkeypox outbreak, according to the Telegraph.
The meeting comes as 12 countries have reported recent cases, with the CDC confirming at least one in the United States.
For anyone interested in the long and mostly history of Smallpox