The claim is that 3.7% of cases result in death—which is higher than what was claimed for COVID at the start: 14,000 cases and 524 deaths (most in children) in 2024. This is extremely unlikely for a number of reasons.
Addendum: In the 2 hrs since the WHO announced the numbers above at its press conference today, the WHO’s numbers (in a press release) have risen: over 15,600 cases and 537 deaths.
a) This is 20 times higher than the death rate for the 2022-23 monkeypox outbreak
b) Obtaining an accurate death rate in the Democratic Republic of Congo where there are few roads and very little modern infrastructure is impossible. In fact Dr. Ogoina, chair of the WHO expert committee, said in today’s press conference that there is underreporting of cases. He also noted that some deaths were in patients with advanced HIV disease.
c). We were initially told that monkeypox had a 1-10% mortality rate in Africa, which may or may not be true, but the mortality rate in the west was more like 0.1%
Dr. Ogoina also said this is a “new form of monkeypox” with “atypical lesions”—so what we need is to look at the genome and get an idea where it came from.
Hellbound and Down 