U.S. declares public health emergency over monkeypox
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Xavier Becerra, secretary of HHS, speaks at a news conference. Photo: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Biden administration has declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency — a move that gives officials more flexibility to tackle the virus' spread.
Why it matters: New York, California and Illinois all declared public health emergencies related to monkeypox in the last two weeks. The World Health Organization has already declared monkeypox a global emergency.
- Monkeypox has spread to more than 70 countries in the recent outbreak.
Details: Department of Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra made the announcement Thursday in a briefing on monkeypox.
- Federal health officials can now expedite preventative measures to treat monkeypox without going through a full federal review, the Washington Post reports.
What they're saying: "We're prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus," Becerra said Thursday. "We urge every American to take monkeypox seriously and to take responsibility to help us tackle this virus."
- Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the declaration will help "exploit the outbreak" and potentially increase access to care for those at risk.
- Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the White House national monkeypox response deputy coordinator, said "today's actions will allow us to meet the needs of communities impacted by the virus ... and aggressively work to stop this outbreak."
State of play: Dr. Robert Califf, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said the U.S. is "at a critical inflection point" in the monkeypox outbreak, requiring "additional solutions to address the rise in infection rates."
- There are 6,600 cases of monkeypox in the U.S. as of Thursday, Becerra said.
- There were less than 5,000 cases of monkeypox last week, he added.
The big picture: Biden's decision to declare monkeypox a public emergency allows him to raise awareness of the virus and unlock more flexibility for spending on ways to treat and tackle the virus.
- About 20% of Americans are worried they'll contract monkeypox, Axios previously reported. But there are still some gaps in Americans' knowledge of the virus and how it impacts our population.
What's next: U.S. health officials said that 800,000 monkeypox vaccine doses will be made available for distribution. But in hotspot states for the monkeypox outbreak, there's a drastic disconnect between the number of doses that local health officials say they need versus what they have been allotted.
- The U.S. will receive another 150,000 monkeypox vaccine doses in the strategic national stockpile in September, Dawn O'Connell, administrator at HHS' Administration for Strategic Preparedness & Response, told reporters Thursday. These were previously scheduled to arrive in October.
Go deeper ... 1 in 5 Americans fear they'll get monkeypox
