US health emergency declaration may come too late to stop spread, experts say
Microbiologists from Aegis Sciences Corporation process tests for COVID-19 and monkeypox at its facility in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday. ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
US President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday declared the country’s monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency, but many health experts fear it may be too late to contain the spread of infections.
Criticism of the White House’s response to the outbreak is mounting, with experts saying authorities have been slow to roll out treatments and vaccines.
The White House statement signaled that the monkeypox virus now poses a significant risk to citizens. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is considering a second declaration that would give federal officials the authority to fast-track medical countermeasures, such as other potential treatments and vaccines, without going through full federal reviews.
It would also allow more flexibility in how current vaccine supplies are administered, Becerra said.
About 6,600 monkeypox infections have been reported in the United States, a number that has risen sharply in recent weeks.
Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert at Georgetown University, said the declaration of a health emergency “signals the seriousness and purpose of the US government and raises global alarm.” But he told The Associated Press that action was overdue.
Gostin said the government was too cautious and should have declared a national emergency earlier.
On July 23, the World Health Organization declared a global emergency over the epidemic, with cases in more than 70 countries.
California, Illinois and New York have made declarations recently, as have New York, San Francisco and San Diego County.
Since doctors diagnosed the first case in the US on May 27, the virus has spread rapidly across the country, with the highest per capita rates reported in Washington, New York and Georgia.
More than 99 percent of infections are among men who have sex with men.
The virus is mostly transmitted through close physical contact. So far, no deaths from the disease have been reported in the United States.
The country now has the highest number of cases among non-endemic countries, and the number is expected to rise as surveillance and testing improve.
Monkeypox is endemic in parts of Africa where humans have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals. Being classified as endemic means that the disease has a constant presence in the population, but does not affect an alarmingly large number of people, as is usually seen in a pandemic.
“Rarely Fatal”
On its website, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says of the virus: “The monkeypox virus is part of the same family of viruses as the variola virus, the virus that causes smallpox. The symptoms of monkeypox are similar to those of smallpox, but are milder and rarely fatal. Monkeypox is not related to chickenpox.”
Concerns are growing that the US may have lost its chance to contain the monkeypox virus. Some public health experts point the finger at the administration for its slowness in rolling out vaccines and treatments.
“The window to contain monkeypox is closing quickly,” Gostin warned in an interview with CNN late last month. He called on the US to declare a national public health emergency and make more doses of the vaccine available.
“I think it’s still possible that it could be contained, but it’s just as possible that it could become endemic in the United States,” he said.
Supplies of the monkeypox vaccine, called Jynneos, are limited despite a surge in demand. The administration has been criticized for moving too slowly to increase the number of doses.
Federal officials have identified about 1.6 million people as at highest risk of monkeypox, but the U.S. has received enough doses of Jynneos to fully cover only about 550,000 people.
The vaccine shortage was caused in part because the Department of Health and Human Services initially failed to request that large stocks of the vaccine it already possessed be bottled for distribution, The New York Times reported, citing multiple unnamed administration officials familiar with the matter. .
The government is currently distributing about 1.1 million doses of vaccine, less than a third of the 3.5 million that health officials now estimate are needed to fight the outbreak. It does not expect the next delivery of 500,000 doses until October.
Add Comment