Immune Systems Advisor

Concerns Over Cardiac Side Effects from Monkeypox Vaccination Monkeypox vaccines include ACAM2000 (used for Smallpox, recently FDA approved for Monkeypox ), JYNNEOS, and modified vaccinia Ankara. The at-risk population is young men who are at the highest risk of idiopathic and COVID-19 vaccine myocarditis at baseline. ACAM2000 has been reported to have major cardiovascular adverse events such as myocarditis, dilated cardiomyopathy, and heart failure. Whereas JYNNEOS and modified vaccinia Ankara are associated with minor cardiovascular adverse events such as tachycardia, palpitation, electrocardiogram changes such as T wave inversion, and ST  elevation in the peer-reviewed literature. The CDC has reported serious myocarditis from the Bavarian Nordic JYNNEOS vaccine requiring hospitalization of young men. A review by Shreshtha et al indicates heart damage from Monkeypox vaccination may come from an off-target attack on the heart by antibodies raised by the vaccines. The paper concl...

The World Health Organization on August 14, 2024 declared the ongoing mpox* outbreak in Africa a global health emergency . *Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a viral disease that can spread easily between people and from infected animals.  WHO convened its emergency committee amid concerns that a deadlier strain of the virus , clade Ib, had reached four previously unaffected countries in Africa. This strain had previously been contained to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The independent experts met virtually Wednesday to advise WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the severity of the outbreak. After that consultation, he announced that he had declared a public health emergency of international concern — the highest level of alarm under international health law. “The detection and rapid spread of a new clade of mpox in eastern DRC, its detection in neighboring countries that had not previously reported mpox and the potential for further spread within Africa...

A recent pharmaceutical “MAX your VAX” advertisement from the CDC caught my attention for several reasons:  the CDC is not a drug company and should not be promoting products from Bavarian Nordic,  the national and public health emergencies have expired for Monkeypox on January 31, 2023,  the JYNNEOS vaccine has well-recognized risks for heart damage (troponin elevation) and cardiac adverse events of special interest especially in those previously vaccinated against smallpox,  the peak age and gender group is men in their twenties and thirties—the same demographic shown in the internet promotion—highest risk for vaccine heart damage. Here is what the fully FDA approved JYNNEOS vaccine package insert says about heart damage and a > 6x increased risks of cardiac adverse events. The White House, Senate, and Congress should be asking why is the CDC promoting the JYNNEOS vaccine now? How are they allowed to violate pharmaceutical advertising laws? For these and many r...

“ The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the alarm, declaring Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, a global public health emergency due to the rapid spread of a new variant. The situation is dire, with the latest outbreak originating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and now affecting neighbouring countries in Central and East Africa. The WHO's Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has emphasised the need for a coordinated international response to curb the spread and save lives.” Mpox is a viral disease that typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the skin, pathologies that can be prevented naturally. Although it is usually mild, certain strains can be fatal. The current outbreak, particularly involving the clade Ib variant, has shown a disturbing trend. This new variant spreads more easily through close contact, including sexual transmission, making it more difficult to contain. Is this another case of a manipulated virus? The Africa...

Cato Institute's Dr. Jeff Singer (also a member of the ACSH Scientific Advisory Board)  -  Sometimes it feels as if it’s March 2020 again. Back then I complained that   bureaucratic red tape   from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made Americans wait too long to access COVID-19 tests when they were already widely available in much of the developed world. That made it more difficult to slow the spread of the virus at a time when vaccines and therapeutics were not yet available. Now it appears the FDA and CDC are about to repeat the same mistakes with monkeypox testing and treatment. In the past, monkeypox outbreaks were rather uncommon, small, and short‐​lived outside of the African continent where the virus originated. Because of this, commercial tests have not yet been developed in the U.S. or elsewhere. Increased global travel and trade means that monkeypox will likely become endemic worldwide, in...