A Bay Area legislator has warned that San Francisco is “moving toward a public health disturbance” over monkeypox, citing a Wednesday announcement from the San Francisco Department of Public Health that the agency is running low on monkeypox vaccines. and will close its clinic in Zuckerberg. San Francisco General Hospital until more supplies arrive.
State Representative Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said the timing of the vaccine shortage is particularly troubling given the growing spread of the disease in the region.
“This exhaustion of existing vaccine supplies is happening just as San Francisco and other communities are seeing increased risk of monkeypox infection and infection,” he said. in a statement, “More vaccine doses will be sent to San Francisco soon, but the amount will still be pretty limited.”
Zuckerberg’s Vaccine Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital has 50 remaining doses that will be administered on a first-come, first-served basis on Wednesday, a news release from the San Francisco Department of Public Health said. Afterwards, it will be closed until the next batch of doses arrives. Other community clinics — such as the San Francisco City Clinic and the Adult Immunization and Travel Clinic — will continue to administer the remaining doses, but are also expected to run out of supplies sometime this week, the release said.
A Tuesday report from KTVU said the line outside Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital stretched to the block as dozens of residents waited to receive a vaccine before supplies ran out. Some people interviewed by KTVU said they would wait up to two hours to get vaccinated.
According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, California has the second highest number of monkeypox cases in the country. A CDC map shows California has 150 confirmed cases – just behind New York, with 158 – but does not specify which outbreaks are most prevalent in the state. However, the San Francisco Department of Public Health said the community had seen 68 confirmed cases so far.
In his statement, Wiener said the federal government was to blame for the lack of a vaccine. He said public health experts warned back in 2010 that monkeypox would inevitably spread beyond West Africa – where the disease is most common – and added that the Food and Drug Administration approved a vaccine for use in 2019. .
“Still, the United States government ordered only 56,000 vaccine doses (enough for 28,000 people) for the national vaccine stockpile and failed to order millions of doses in preparation for an inevitable outbreak,” he said.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health release said officials “urgently” ordered 35,000 new doses this week, but did not specify whether it expected to receive the entirety, or a portion, of that order.
Monkeypox is a rare but potentially serious disease that is usually characterized by a new, unexplained rash and skin lesions. Other early symptoms include fever, chills, and swollen lymph nodes. The CDC says the disease is rarely fatal, but warns that children under the age of 8, people with weakened immune systems, and people with a history of eczema are especially susceptible to becoming seriously ill. Huh.
“We need large amounts of additional vaccine doses, and we need them immediately,” Wiener said in his statement. “Failures of the federal government threaten to cause profound harm to our community. Once we get past this emergency, we need to account for these failures – failures that endanger people’s lives and health. puts it.”