Health Secretary Says States ‘Need to Work With Us’ on Fighting Monkeypox

James Krellenstein, founder of PrEP4All, an AIDS advocacy group, said it wasn’t fast enough. He blamed the FDA for not moving fast enough to increase supplies and for delaying inspections of the vaccine maker’s manufacturing plant in Denmark.

But FDA Commissioner Dr Robert Califf told reporters on Thursday that his agency had “moved much faster than planned”, noting that it had to not only inspect the plant but also make sure the vaccine was effective. . “The only thing worse than not having a vaccine is having a vaccine that is widely distributed and not effective,” he said.

At the moment, there isn’t enough vaccine to go around. On Wednesday, Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, a Democrat, wrote a letter to Mr. Becerra and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Valensky, complaining that New Jersey has not received its fair share. In the letter obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Murphy noted New Jersey’s proximity to New York, which has more monkeypox cases than any other state.

He said his calculations showed that because of that proximity and the number of same-sex families in New Jersey, his state would bear 3 percent of the national disease burden, but allocated only 2.06 percent of the 131,000 doses available. was. So far. “Therefore, we do not believe that New Jersey has received a similar percentage of available vaccines,” Murphy’s letter said.

Federal health officials say their allocation strategy depends on two factors: how many cases a state has and how many of its residents are at risk. The formula supports at-risk areas – including men who have sex with men who have HIV or who are eligible for medication that can reduce their chances of becoming infected with HIV, said Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, who leads Helping to Respond to the Monkeypox for CDC

More than two years after the coronavirus pandemic, the monkeypox outbreak that began in May poses another challenge for public health officials across the country. Congress has so far not allocated any funding for the response – although Senate Democrats on Thursday proposed $21 billion in COVID spending – and the public is tired of hearing about the infectious disease. The Biden administration has estimated it will need another $7 billion to tackle monkeypox.