It’s been barely three weeks since the WHO first confirmed that cases of monkeypox had started spreading throughout western Europe and North America. Over 100 cases of the virus, which is endemic in parts of west and central Africa, have been detected in nearly a dozen countries, including the UK, and Canada and the US. Still, that has offered plenty of time for right-wing conspiracy theorists to push deeply false information about the impact and origins of the virus.

A leading proponent of these unfounded claims is US congresswoman and anti-vaxxer Marjorie Taylor Greene who is pushing the theory that coverage of the outbreak is a coordinated ploy by Bill Gates and the governments of the world to profit off the return of masks and lockdowns.

In a live video on Facebook, Greene claimed that “disgusting” and “terrifying” images of the skin of monkeypox sufferers will be used to scare people into submission. When that’s done, she told viewers, Gates will then attempt to make money by forcing you to buy a “Bill Gates pillow” to go alongside your “Dr Fauci pillow” that you can “cuddle with every night because Bill Gates is going to save the day.”

“Bill Gates is very concerned about monkeypox because this is something, apparently, he can make a lot of money off of,” Greene added. "Him and his other buddies; you know, all the Democrat donors, that is.”

Marge says Bill Gates is going to use Monkeypox as another scam to make money and control the world, and he also wants everyone to eat fake meat created in a lab and drink “poop water.” “Why is Bill Gates running everything?”