August 8, 2022 | VICE News
Poll: Conspiracy theories on the rise as monkeypox surges in the US
As the US population becomes more aware of monkeypox, conspiracists are stepping in to fill in the knowledge gap and spread suspicion behind the disease and the vaccine used against it. A new poll by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, released in late July, found that many Americans reported believing in claims about the disease that were directly repurposed from COVID-19.
VICE News used evidence from our report “The COVID-19 Cut-and-Paste Conspiracies Plague Monkeypox Discourse“, where we outline the different conspiracies and beliefs that have been repurposed since the surge in monkeypox cases began to occur.
Report authors Moustafa Ayad, ISD’s Executive Director for AMEA, and Ciarán O’Connor, Senior Analyst, are quoted: “Many of these communities, and the influencers within them, are now acutely aware of the successes of their ‘plandemic’ disinformation playbook, which sought to delegitimize public health officials, and their institutions”.
