Monkeypox requires a “substantial public health response”, a vaccine expert who worked on the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab said after being knighted in recognition of his efforts to battle Covid-19. But Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, stressed the disease, cause by the monkeypox virus, presents a much lower risk to public health than Covid.
Sir Andrew spoke after being knighted by the Prince of Wales for services to public health, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on Wednesday. Sir Andrew, the scientist who was chief investigator for the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in 2020, told the PA news agency: “The monkeypox virus doesn’t spread as well as Covid does, it also very rarely causes the severity of disease that Covid does, and so spread in the general population is extremely unlikely.
“That doesn’t mean that we don’t need a substantial public health response to control it but it’s not a threat to the whole of public health in the way Covid was.” It comes as the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced it has detected 18 additional cases of monkeypox in England, bringing the total to 305.
