Fact Check: Mpox Vaccine Does NOT Contain HIV
Is the mpox vaccine loaded with HIV, as a video shared by The People’s Voice claims? No, that’s not true: The People’s Voice is a website with a long history of publishing made-up news, and it provided no sources — aside from a supposed whistleblower — to back up the claims made in the video. There is no evidence to suggest the JYNNEOS vaccine, the only mpox vaccine approved in the U.S., contains HIV.
A version of the claim originated in a clip posted to the video-sharing platform Rumble by The People’s Voice (archived here) on August 19, 2024, titled, “Whistleblower: Bill Gates Inserting HIV in Monkeypox Vaccine.” At the 2:00 mark in the video, the so-called “whistleblower” says:
They are calling it ‘Mpox,’ but it’s more than that. It’s not just a disease — it’s a bioweapon. Mpox is designed to mimic the deadliest strains of HIV but it’s far more insidious.
Here is how the video appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: Rumble screenshot taken Tue Aug 20 08:16:00 2024 UTC)
The video insinuates that “mpox” is a newly unleashed bioweapon, which is false. Both the title of the video and a caption at the beginning of the clip further claim without evidence that the mpox vaccine is “loaded with HIV virus.”
The People’s Voice video provided no information to confirm its claims, such as details of the vaccine said to be in development or evidence it would contain HIV.
Mpox is not a bioweapon
As Lead Stories previously reported, mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a viral disease caused by a species of monkeypox virus, MPXV. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes the condition (archived here) as belonging to the same family as smallpox. Infection typically results in a rash that undergoes several stages, including scabs, before healing.
MPXV can spread between animals and people, as well as between people, and is regularly found in parts of Central and West Africa. Mpox is the World Health Organization’s (WHO) terminology for what is commonly known as monkeypox (archived here).
The first reported human case of monkeypox was recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970, according to WHO (archived here). The first case outside of Africa was discovered in the U.S. in 2003, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (archived here).
Only one FDA-approved vaccine for mpox as of August 2024
As of August 21, 2024, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved (archived here) only one vaccine to prevent mpox disease, the JYNNEOS vaccine (archived here), in 2019. The package insert is visible here (archived here), and its ingredient list (archived here) does not include HIV:
JYNNEOS contains Modified Vaccinia Ankara-Bavarian Nordic (MVA-BN), a weakened, non-replicating orthopoxvirus. It also contains Tris (tromethamine) and sodium chloride, and may contain small amounts of DNA and protein from the Chicken Embryo Fibroblast cells used to grow the vaccine virus, benzonase, gentamicin, and ciprofloxacin.
The FDA describes (archived here) JYNNEOS as a live virus vaccine that contains a weakened, non-replicating orthopoxvirus. It is approved for use in people 18 and older who are determined to be at a high risk for monkeypox infection. In 2022, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization (archived here) to allow health care providers to administer the vaccine intradermally, or between the layers of the skin, and for some high-risk individuals under 18.
The ACAM2000 (archived here) vaccine is also licensed to prevent smallpox in certain people at risk for exposure to orthopoxvirus infections, but it has not been used in the current mpox outbreak that started in 2022, according to the CDC (archived here).
At the time of writing, the CDC does not recommend (archived here) routine immunization against mpox for the general public. However, vaccination against mpox is recommended (archived here) for specific populations, including those with known or suspected exposure to someone with mpox.
The People’s Voice
The People’s Voice is among the most prolific online publishers of fake news. Articles on the site often link to and extensively quote stories from other sites to give an appearance of legitimacy but the main claim in the headline and/or the first paragraph of each article is almost never supported by the sources that are offered. The site routinely makes up quotes from people or misrepresents scientific study results.
It states that it makes “NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THE SITE.”
It originally started as YourNewsWire in 2014 and rebranded as NewsPunch in 2017. In 2023 it rebranded itself again to The People’s Voice. The People’s Voice/NewsPunch/YourNewsWire has published numerous fake news articles in the past. Its Facebook page, “The People’s Voice,” lost its verification checkmark, according to a 2018 report from Media Matters For America.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims related to health issues are here.
