SciCheck Digest

Monkeypox is a viral disease that spreads through close physical contact with an infected person and large respiratory droplets that don’t travel more than a few feet. A recent meme on social media gets the facts wrong about how the virus spreads, its severity and symptoms.

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Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by a virus related to smallpox, as we’ve explained before. The disease was discovered in lab monkeys in 1958 and can spread from animals to humans, as well as between humans.

On Aug. 4, the U.S. declared monkeypox a public health emergency as the number of confirmed cases in the country reached 7,102.

Rumors have taken off online since early May, when an outbreak of monkeypox began in countries outside of Central and West Africa, where the disease is endemic. We recently debunked a false claim about its origins.

Now, a meme spreading several false claims about the disease has been circulating online with a BBC logo, although no such image is available on BBC websites or social media accounts.

We’ll address each of the meme’s inaccurate claims below.

Claim: “CDC has now classified this disease as airborne and anybody within 15 ft can catch it”

Facts: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has explained that monkeypox spreads through “close, personal, often skin-to-skin contact” with an infected person. That includes direct contact with an infected person’s sores or body fluids, contact with fabric or surfaces that have been used by...

Read Full Story: https://www.factcheck.org/2022/08/four-false-claims-about-monkeypox/