California State Sen. Scott Wiener (D) said in a statement on Thursday That the city of San Francisco is heading towards a public health crisis caused by the uncontrolled spread of the monkeypox virus.
City Public Health Department (DPH) tweeted on Wednesday that his walk-in clinic would be closed Due to lack of vaccine for the remaining days of the week. Other city clinics are working through remaining appointments and joining DPH “immediately seeking higher doses.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 1,700 residents of San Francisco was vaccinated against the virusAccording to the San Francisco DPH.
Wiener said vaccination rates will continue to slow, leading to its spread in the city and surrounding communities. He added that “failure to control this outbreak” would harm residents, especially the city’s LGBTQ+ community.
“We need a significant amount of additional vaccine doses, and we need it immediately. The federal government’s failures threaten to cause profound harm to our community,” Weiner said. “Once we get past this emergency We need to be held accountable for these failures – failures that put people’s lives and health at risk.”
Wiener’s statement comes Monday by former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) asking the federal government to increase its access to monkeypox vaccines as cases of the virus spread across the country.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there are more than 1,000 monkeypox cases in 41 US states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Enforce the Defense Production Act to address the need for vaccines in America,” de Blasio, who last month officially announced his race to represent New York’s 10th congressional district, wrote in his thread . “There really is no time to waste in a crisis like this, and there’s a lot federal and city officials can do right now to get this crisis under control.”
The Biden administration recently announced plans to distribute 144,00 more doses of the Jynneos vaccine in an effort to combat the recent spike in cases.