Oh no, all we needed was monkeypox!

Four years after the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a worldwide epidemiology largely under control thanks to widespread immunity against SARS-CoV-2 achieved through infections, vaccinations or both, another threat is on the horizon. The increase in monkeypox (mpox) cases documented in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and some neighboring countries, as well as the recent identification of infected patients in other continents, has raised general awareness and prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the ongoing mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. This recent declaration is helping to heighten public concern as the memory of the dramatic emergence of COVID-19 is still fresh in our minds. Nevertheless, there are still some important questions that remain unanswered and would require urgent responses (means of virus transmission, reliability of diagnostic kits, virus evolution and dynamics in the host and public reception).