Tag Archives: monkeypox

Matt Tracy reports at Gay City News: The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced that 63,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine have been administered in the city, but officials are also pointing to racial disparities and vowing to dole out $5 million to community groups to address inequities in the next phase of the vaccine rollout. …

Via press release from the White House: Today, HHS is announcing that it has accelerated Phase 4 of its National Vaccine Strategy and will be making an additional 1.8 million doses available for ordering starting Monday, August 22. Jurisdictions that are adopting the intradermal administration of vaccine and have used 90% of their current supply of vaccine will be able …

The Washington Post reports: The potential case of human-to-dog transmission was discovered in a 4-year-old Italian greyhound 12 days after its owners had an onset of monkeypox symptoms, according to the Lancet report. The dog had lesions on its skin and mucous membranes, pustules on its abdomen and a thin anal ulceration. Medical staffers matched one of the dog owners’ …

Gothamist reports: LGBTQ+ activists gathered outside Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office in Manhattan on Sunday to demand better access to monkeypox testing and vaccines from the federal government. Organizers with ACT UP New York, PrEP4All and members of the queer community that have been impacted by the monkeypox outbreak called for or an emergency use authorization of the tecovirimat, or Tpoxx …

Via press release: A group of global experts convened by WHO has agreed on new names for monkeypox virus variants, as part of ongoing efforts to align the names of the monkeypox disease, virus and variants—or clades—with current best practices. The experts agreed to name the clades using Roman numerals. The monkeypox virus was named upon first discovery in 1958, …

Spectrum News reports: Eligible New Yorkers will have another opportunity to sign up for monkeypox vaccine appointments on Saturday, health officials said Friday. The city will post 6,000 appointment slots to its monkeypox vaccine portal at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 13, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a press release Friday afternoon. New Yorkers can also …

Spectrum News reports: Following the city’s bumpy rollout of monkeypox vaccines this summer, the New York City Council LGBTQIA+ Caucus unveiled legislation Thursday morning aimed at combating the outbreak across the five boroughs. If passed, the package, which consists of three bills, would require the city to establish a multi-pronged monkeypox response plan, create an education and outreach strategy, ensure …

The Washington Post reports: The manufacturer of the only vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration to protect against monkeypox privately warned senior Biden health officials about their plan to split doses and change how the shots are delivered. “We do have some reservations … due to the very limited safety data available,” Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin wrote …

Politico reports: The Florida Department of Health counted 985 people infected by the monkeypox virus as of Tuesday, marking a jump from the 525 infections reported by Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo one week ago. The agency also ordered the full 72,000 vaccine doses allocated by HHS. The HHS allocation is not enough to keep up with the outbreak of …

The Washington Post reports: Biden administration officials are set to announce Tuesday a new strategy to split monkeypox vaccine doses in hopes of vaccinating up to five times as many people against the virus, according to officials with direct knowledge of the plan. Rather than inject doses of Jynneos subcutaneously, a traditional way of delivering vaccines into the fatty tissue …

New York City’s Fox affiliate reports: New York City is doubling the capacity to administer monkeypox vaccine shots as five new vaccine clinics are opening. The city also announced that it plans to open a clinic in the heart of Times Square in Manhattan. The move comes as the federal government declared a public health emergency. 79,000 doses have been …

Axios reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated guidance Friday recommending that people limit their sexual partners while waiting to get vaccinated against monkeypox. While monkeypox is not considered a sexually transmitted disease, it is often transmitted through “close, sustained physical contact, which can include sexual contact,” the CDC said. Infections are overwhelmingly among men who have …

The Louisiana Illuminator reports: Southern Decadence, advertised as the largest LGBTQ+ festival held annually in the Deep South, is scheduled for Labor Day weekend (Sept. 1-5) in New Orleans. It typically attracts 100,000 to 300,000 participants and is a major economic boon to the city in a season when tourism is otherwise sluggish. Health officials at the state and local …

ABC News reports: Amid growing concerns over the potential threat of monkeypox, executives from Moderna said Wednesday they have initiated a research program to consider whether the company could create a monkeypox vaccine with mRNA technology. “We’re obviously very aware of the monkeypox concern and obviously very sensitive to recent announcements,” Moderna President Stephen Hoge said during an investor call. …

The Washington Post reports: The Biden administration plans to declare the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency as soon as Thursday in an effort to galvanize awareness and unlock additional flexibility and funding to fight the virus’s spread. The declaration would come from Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who is expected to discuss the plan at an afternoon …

“It’s just kind of remarkable to see some of the headlines — the headlines that very clearly are trying to make you afraid of monkeypox or fill-in-the-blank. “You know, because if you’re not afraid of this there will be something else after that and something else after that. “These people are determined to make you afraid and do whatever it …

New York City’s CBS affiliate reports: The next round of monkeypox vaccine appointments in New York City will go online Thursday, the health department says. City health officials say 23,000 first-dose appointments will be made available on the city’s vaccine portal starting Thursday at 6 p.m. The number of cases continues to rise both in the city and across the …

Politico reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday attempted to downplay anxiety over monkeypox, saying that politicians and the media have overblown the severity of the disease.  “I am so sick of politicians, and we saw this with Covid, trying to sow fear into the population,” DeSantis said during a press conference near Orlando. “We’re not doing fear.” DeSantis also …

Gothamist reports: Advocates and lawmakers are calling for the Biden administration to remove barriers to access for a promising medication called tecovirimat, or TPOXX, as New York’s monkeypox outbreak worsens. So far, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has only approved the medication for the treatment of smallpox — though some early studies show TPOXX can help against monkeypox, too. …

CNN reports: Many technicians at Labcorp and Quest Diagnostics, two of the largest commercial labs in the US, have been refusing to draw blood from patients who might have monkeypox, CNN has learned. Labcorp and Quest don’t dispute that in many cases, their phlebotomists are not taking blood from possible monkeypox patients. What remains unclear, after company statements and follow-ups …