President Joe Biden and his top health officials revealed their plan to respond to the ongoing monkeypox outbreak Tuesday, which will include targeting homosexual men with vaccines.
The administration will allocate its limited supply of monkeypox vaccines to individuals with a known or presumed monkeypox exposure, as well as to men who have sex with men who have had multiple sexual partners in an area where the pathogen is spreading. The federal government currently has about 28,000 courses of the two-dose Jynneos vaccine, but supply is expected to surge to about 300,000 courses in the coming weeks.
The initial tier of recipients includes Hawaii, Massachusetts, Utah, Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, California, Colorado and Florida and Washington, D.C., according to a draft distribution plan reviewed by The Post. https://t.co/X6a6Kf2w6r
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The first states which will receive the vaccine allocation are Hawaii, Massachusetts, Utah, Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, California, Colorado and Florida, as well as Washington, D.C., the Washington Post first reported Tuesday. More supply is expected to be shipped to states in July. A total of 1.6 million doses are expected to be made available by the end of the year.
So far, only 306 cases of monkeypox have been detected in the U.S. across 27 states and the District of Columbia. The global outbreak has reached at least 4,700 patients in 49 countries, a notable level of spread for the sickness typically found in Africa. (RELATED: CDC Tells Monkeypox Patients To Keep Their Clothes On When They Have Sex)
The administration added that it is working with health agencies to increase testing capacity and will continue to fight the outbreak globally, not just in the U.S.
