U.S. declares monkeypox a public health emergency, expedites Jynneos doses

The health secretary is also considering a second declaration empowering federal officials to expedite medical countermeasures, such as potential treatments and vaccines, without going through full-fledged federal reviews. That would also allow for greater flexibility in how the current supply of vaccines is administered, Becerra said.

Federal officials Thursday afternoon said they were still finalizing the formal declaration of a public health emergency, which would be posted on an HHS webpage.

The administration’s announcement follows similar decisions by health officials in New York, California and Illinois and global health leaders. The World Health Organization on July 23 declared that monkeypox was a public health emergency of international concern, its highest-level warning, after confirmed outbreaks in about 70 countries where the virus has not historically spread.

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Health officials Thursday also said they were taking steps to improve access to Jynneos, the only vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration to protect against the virus through a two-dose regimen. Federal officials have identified about 1.6 million people as highest risk for monkeypox, but the U.S. has only received enough Jynneos doses to fully cover about 550,000 people. Officials said that they had expedited an additional 150,000 doses of Jynneos to arrive in September, and FDA Commissioner Robert Califf told reporters that a “dose-sparing” plan was under serious consideration.

“We’re considering an approach … that would allow health care providers to use an existing one-dose vial of the vaccine to administer a total of up to five separate doses,” said Califf, adding that the plan was “looking good” and would be finalized in the coming days.

Federal leaders had spent weeks debating whether to declare monkeypox a public health emergency, and officials said that Thursday’s planned announcement is part of a broader push to contain the virus. The announcement follows the White House’s decision this week to name Robert J. Fenton Jr., a longtime official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as the coordinator of the national response to the virus.

“This public health emergency will allow us to explore additional strategies to get vaccines and treatments more quickly out in the affected communities. And it will allow us to get more data from jurisdictions so we can effectively track and attack this outbreak,” Fenton said Thursday.

Thursday’s announcements were cheered by President Biden’s allies on Capitol Hill, including House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), who had pressed the administration to declare an emergency.

“This critical step will allow the Biden administration to build on the progress it has already made to expand the availability of vaccines, testing, and treatment nationwide,” Maloney said in a statement.

But public health experts called Thursday’s announcement overdue, saying that the emergency declaration had been long-needed to fast-track more funding and flexibility.

“It’s about time,” David C. Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, said in a statement. “With this declaration in place, the administration must act quickly to allocate funding to state and local health departments for … clinical services” to deal with monkeypox.

The top Republican on the Senate’s health committee said that the Biden administration had failed to move quickly to contain the virus.

“I have been baffled by the degree to which the administration seems to be disconnected from the realities on the ground for health care providers, public health personnel, and, most importantly, patients,” Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) wrote in a letter to Becerra, calling the government’s response “a devastating public health failure.”

More than 6,600 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in the United States since May 18 with the vast majority occurring among men who have sex with men — a total that has doubled about every 8 days, but which experts believe is a significant undercount. Officials have also reported at least five cases of monkeypox in children, who are believed to have gotten infected…