The monkeypox vaccine

Reuters is a British news agency founded in 1851. The agency is distinguished because it was the first agency to announce the end of World War I in the British Empire. Reuters today has 16,000 employees in 91 countries of Africa, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Europe, the Middle East, India and the Americas. In addition, many different themes are covered, which can be of both national and international interest. One article that particularly impressed me is the one about the ongoing negotiations in Europe for the purchase of monkeypox vaccines. In fact, the EU is attempting to purchase the vaccine Imvanex from Bavarian Nordic (BAVA.CO) and the antiviral tecovirimat, developed by SIGA Technologies (SIGA.O). Still, however, negotiations have not been concluded. Bavarian Nordi’s vaccine has been approved by the scientific community against simple smallpox, while SIGA Technologies’ vaccine is also approved against monkeypox. The symptoms of monkeypox (fever, rash and pus-filled skin lesions) can last two to four weeks and often resolve on their own. Scientists believe that the virus variant can cause some of the infected people to die. This article impressed me greatly because the situation described resembles that of March 2020, when Covid had recently arrived in Italy, with the difference that there wasn’t yet a vaccine against this virus.