The last time I reported on monkeypox, news had just broken that Thailand’s public health officials confirmed a case of the more virulent strain that is part of an outbreak in Central Africa. Sweden has also recently announced that it had the first case of the same virus strain detected outside of Africa.

As a reminder, this particular variety of monkeypox (which the press is desperately trying to rebrand as ‘mpox’ with little success outside of the “journalists”) is easier to catch via skin contact and causes more serious illness than the version of monkeypox that I reported on during 2022 global outbreak.

The strain of concern here is Clade 1b. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency to gather supplies for a massive vaccination campaign targeting this pathogen.

Now, the organization has so quickly authorized the first vaccine against monkeypox that it surprised the head of the manufacturing firm.