U.S. health officials say they do not have enough vaccines against monkey pox to cope with rising demand. The U.S. has received 370,000 out of nearly 7 million vaccine doses the government has purchased in total. But millions of packages are expected to arrive next year alone
The U.S. has so far reported more than 1,800 cases of chickenpox, though this is considered a low number because the tests were not complete either.
The disease, which is characterized by skin lesions, usually passes on its own but can be extremely painful. “We still do not have all the vaccine we would like at the moment,” said Rochelle and Lansky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, at a news briefing last Friday. But millions of packages are expected to arrive next year alone.
The federal government has distributed about 156,000 packages across the U.S. and expects to start shipping another 130,000 packages by Monday, according to the U.S. Department of Health.
Earlier this week, New York City’s vaccination site collapsed when thousands of people tried to order vaccines at once. New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Wassen apologized for launching the vaccine. “We own it, these mistakes are not supposed to happen so we are working to correct them and do better,” he said at a news conference.
During a conversation on Tuesday with Biden administration officials, New York Mayor Eric Adams asked to allocate additional portions to the city. The true extent of the outbreak in the US is unknown because diagnostic tests can take up to three weeks from the onset of symptoms. A month ago there were only 45 cases in the US.
More than 12,500 cases of monkey pox have been reported in nearly 70 countries, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.