Monkeypox has infected nearly 48,000 people globally, but a video spreading online suggests it’s all a hoax.

"MonkeyPox power-grabbing sham! Fake ‘outbreak’ designed to force lockdowns, mandates, and shots," read the caption on a Facebook video posted Aug. 17.

The video features a clip of conservative radio personality Stew Peters saying, "Monkeypox is a complete fake sham, just like COVID-19."

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

First, we find no evidence that any lockdown measures similar to those implemented during the early days of COVID-19 pandemic have been put in place in response to monkeypox. Nor have we seen any laws mandating monkeypox vaccines. Unlike with COVID-19, monkeypox is not new — it was first detected in humans in 1970 — and there is already a vaccine for it.

Peters has a history of using inflammatory rhetoric, including making a film earlier this year that promoted the baseless theory that COVID-19 is a synthetic version of snake venom. The clip in this Facebook post comes from a 12-minute segment of Peters’ July 25 podcast "The Stew Peters Show."

As evidence that monkeypox is a "complete sham," Peters appeared to be pointing to the low number of fatalities resulting from the virus. "Even the worst countries have only a few thousand cases," Peters said in the video. "And that’s nationwide. In the United States there have been zero...

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