Biden health officials defend approach to monkeypox as cases grow
Top health officials in the Biden administration defended their approach Thursday to the monkeypox outbreak as cases continue to grow and contradictory information has emerged on appropriate vaccine administration.
Members of the White House monkeypox task force, in response to a question from the Washington Blade in a conference call with reporters, held fast to their new guidance on the JYNNEOS vaccine, which seeks to change the method of administration of the shot in an effort to expand use of the existing supply by fivefold — despite objections and even threats to cancel the supply from the vaccine manufacturer, according to a report this week in the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, cases of monkeypox in the United States are escalating — and beginning to extend outside the community of men who have sex with men — as the total number of confirmed cases has reached 13,517.
Bob Fenton, the White House monkeypox response coordinator, was first to respond to the Blade’s question on how the public can trust guidance from health officials amid the contradictory information by asserting “anytime that you have change, you’re going to have the need to update and educate the community on those changes.” “The day…the FDA made that decision, we need signaled a week that this was being undertaken by FDA there already were a number of jurisdictions that started the training in anticipation of that decision,” Fenton said. “And that day, there were jurisdictions actually delivering intradermal shots that day [to] fivefold the number of shots and did that to areas of high risk and did that to areas that made equity a factor in those decisions where they vaccinated.
