The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) says “the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an extraordinary situation that now qualifies as a global emergency.” As of July 23 more than 2,300 cases have been documented in the United States and many in the health community believe that is a dramatic undercount.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus “made the decision to issue the declaration despite a lack of consensus among experts serving on the U.N.
health agency’s emergency committee. It was the first time the chief of the U.N. health agency has taken such an action.” Tedros added, “We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little and which meets the criteria in the international health regulations.” As reported, “A global emergency is WHO’s highest level of alert, but the designation does not necessarily mean a disease is particularly transmissible or lethal.” Currently there is only one lab in Denmark that makes the vaccine against Monkeypox.
There apparently was an indication monkeypox could spread a few years ago and no one looked at stockpiling vaccine. At this time the LGBTQ community is seeing the brunt of this outbreak.