Infectious disease experts and public health advocates warn that the Byden administration is too late to respond to the outbreak of monkeypox, and that the United States is at risk of losing control of the disease.
They say that the response to monkeypox reflects the earliest worst part of the coronavirus pandemic. The test is severely restricted and the vaccine is delayed in deployment, so the virus spreads undetected.
“We are lagging behind in streamlining tests, making vaccines available, and streamlining access to the best treatments. All three areas are bureaucratic and slow, which we do. It means we haven’t contained this outbreak, “said David Harvey, Managing Director of the National Union (NCSD), STD Director.
Unlike COVID-19, monkeypox is not a new virus and its strategy to reduce its spread is well known. Biden administration officials said they were confident in their approach.
“As a global community, we’ve known it for decades. We know how it spreads. There are tests that can help identify infected people. White House Corona In a recent briefing, Virus Response Coordinator Ashish Jar said:
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are 460 cases in 30 states in Puerto Rico and DC, but the number is according to experts because many people who may be infected are still inaccessible. It is arguably underrated. For extensive testing.
Critics say efforts may be too slow, but the government is stepping up its response by expanding testing capabilities and increasing access to vaccinations.
“We’ve been screaming for a month about how bad the monkeypox diagnosis is, and it’s a really obvious mistake, preventable, and the administration has learned lessons from early COVID. It’s very clear that it isn’t, “said James Krellenstein, co-founder of the HIV treatment advocacy group Prep4All.
John Andras, an associate professor of global health at the Milken Institute of Public Health at George Washington University, said he was fortunate that monkeypox was not as contagious or deadly as COVID-19. ..
“I think we’ll keep repeating these mistakes because it’s our achievement. That’s our achievement. We’ve had more than five or six COVID waves, but every time we’re a little crazy. It seems, “says Andrus. “To stop sending, everyone needs to be reading from the same page. We all have the same roadmap.”
Government expanded testing to commercial labs in late June, and providers will soon be able to establish relationships and order tests directly from labs that can jump over fewer hoops.
However, it took more than a month for the move to take effect, and the system-wide test capacity increased from about 8,000 tests per week to 10,000 tests.
Demand is also not evenly distributed throughout the network of public health laboratories. It is concentrated in urban areas such as New York City, leading to backlogs and frustrated patients waiting for test results for days.
Health officials in the Biden administration have touted efforts to expand testing this week.
“I strongly recommend that all healthcare providers have a high clinical suspicion of monkeypox among their patients,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a phone call with a reporter. “Patients with a suspicious rash should be tested.”
Examining monkeypox is a relatively simple process that involves wiping skin lesions. Unlike COVID-19, the CDC had already undergone a previously developed test, but patients were restricted to a narrow set of specific criteria to qualify for the test.
“The test was already available. The vaccine was already available. We should actually be more active in the test … and this speaks to part of the bureaucracy of both FDAs. think [Food and Drug Administration] CDC “. Celine Gowner, an infectious disease specialist and public health editor at Kaiser Health News, said.
“We could have done it faster with the participation of the commercial lab. Let the academic medical center do the testing and let the hospital lab develop its own PCR testing, which means it’s not that difficult,” Gounder said. Mr. says.
The White House is also working to expand its vaccination program and has announced plans to immediately ship tens of thousands of doses of Jynneos, the only FDA-approved vaccine specifically for monkeypox.
It can be administered more than 1 million times throughout the year. The CDC has also expanded its eligibility criteria so that individuals with confirmed and presumed exposure to monkeypox can be vaccinated, not just those with confirmed cases.
However, activists and experts say the administration is moving too slowly and the updated vaccination strategy is almost inadequate.
“We believe this outbreak is already out of control. So we haven’t contained it. At this point, the vaccine doesn’t contain it. It’s not enough. Weapons them. It’s a costly and intensive process, “said NCSD Harvey.
New York City and Washington, DC have begun providing vaccines to men who have sex with other men or who may have been exposed to the virus. However, both cities ran out of supplies less than a day after launching their local immune initiative. DC Health had to block access about 10 minutes after the shot was made available.
Strategic national stockpiles have approximately 56,000 Jynneos doses, which will be allocated soon, and the government will allocate 296,000 doses in the coming weeks, officials said.
The smallpox vaccine ACAM2000 has been given tens of millions of times in the United States, but the injections have more dangerous and serious side effects.
According to a spokesman for Bavarian Nordic, a Danish-based manufacturer of Jynneos, 300,000 shipments have already been delivered or will arrive in the next few days.
An additional 1.1 million filling doses are still being tested by the FDA and should be completed in the coming weeks.
The government also owns a total of 15 million bulk materials, but they are still frozen and the government has not told the company how to meet those doses.
“American taxpayers have spent money to purchase and manufacture these doses accurately so that they can be used quickly in the event of an outbreak,” said Krellenstein of Prep4All.
“My friend was literally denied vaccination because of the outbreak here and the Biden administration couldn’t understand how to inoculate the United States with one million doses from the Danish freezer.” Krellenstein was added.
