Do the smallpox vaccines work to prevent monkeypox

Yet more evidence suggests we should be wary

181 monkeypox patients (average age 37) were studied in Spain, and their illnesses described in the Lancet.

“Mitjà and co-authors noted that 32 individuals in their cohort (18%) acquired monkeypox infection despite a smallpox vaccination history, which “warrants further investigation to better understand the protection provided by vaccination in the context of the current outbreak.”‘

Smallpox vaccination of infants ended over 50 years ago. Smallpox was declared eradicated 45 years ago. So few people in a cohort whose average age is 37 would be expected to have been vaccinated—and the vaccine they received would have preceded both ACAM-2000 and Jynneos, and been reliable at preventing smallpox. But it apparently did not prevent recent monkeypox.

In 2002 it was suggested that vaccination-induced immunity to smallpox was long-lasting. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2002/08/smallpox-vaccines-effect-may-last-35-years-researchers-say

We can thank Tony Fauci’s NIAID for sponsoring the original trial (2003) in which 20 plus year old (expired) smallpox vaccine was diluted to see how much you really needed. You didn’t need that much. This study presumably provided the underpinning for the dilution decision regarding Jynneos.

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