The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Strategic National Stockpile, said it has so far distributed about 156,000 doses of Jynneos, the monkeypox vaccine, in two FDA-approved doses, and that another 131,000 doses are available
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, July 15, that demand for the monkeypox vaccine in the U.S. is now greater than the current availability in the country, according to Politico.
The deficiency, which the director of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky, called “disappointing,” comes as 1,470 cases of monkeypox have been reported in the U.S., up from 45 cases on June 10. The US cases are part of a global epidemic that now includes more than 11,000 confirmed cases in 55 countries.
“Right now the demand for vaccines is greater than our current available supply and we know this is frustrating“, she said Walensky during media briefing. “We expect an increase in cases in the coming weeks».
The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Strategic National Stockpile, said it has so far distributed about 156,000 doses of Jynneos, the FDA-approved two-dose monkeypox vaccine, and that another 131,000 doses are available. . “While the supply of Jynneos vaccine has been tight recently, we are starting to see the supply increase, and as that happens, we will continue to administer these doses as quickly, efficiently and fairly as possible,” Dawn O said during the briefing. ‘Connell, HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response.
HHS said it placed an order for 2.5 million more doses of the Jynneos vaccine on Friday, which will begin arriving in 2023, in addition to an earlier order for the same amount placed on July 1, which will begin arriving in “during the next year.”
The federal government’s response to the unprecedented monkeypox outbreak has come under fire from doctors and health advocates, who have said for weeks that logistical shortfalls have made it difficult for patients to be tested for the rare virus and criticized sluggish vaccine development.
Walensky said Friday that the government will begin focusing more on providing vaccines to areas with increasing numbers of cases “while still providing vaccines to all areas and people at increased risk of disease.”
The CDC obtained demographic information for 700 of the confirmed cases from the states, which are not required to report this information. All cases involve adults, according to the agency, and the vast majority involve men who have sex with people of the same sex.
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