White House Monkeypox Response Team Gives Update to LGBTQ+ Community
President Joe Biden's newly appointed monkeypox response deputy coordinator, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, held a briefing Friday afternoon during which he addressed concerns from reporters representing LGBTQ+ news organizations regarding the Biden administration's handling of the monkeypox virus (MPV) outbreak.More than 7,000 cases of MPV are currently confirmed in the United States, and calls for increased access to vaccines and treatment have been growing as the administration tries to fight the outbreak.
On Thursday, the U.S. government declared the MPV outbreak as a national health emergency, freeing up funds to be directed to combating the spread of the virus and pushing states to gather more data on confirmed cases.
In his remarks, Daskalakis addressed the concerns of those who register for vaccines only to find that all appointments are already booked.
Officials have noted the mismatch between supply and demand, he said, not just in New York, where about 20,000 appointments were made on Thursday evening and were quickly filled."The administration is working hard across domains to stimulate more production, to accelerate the finishing of the vaccine so it can be shipped, and also new strategies and novel strategies to make the vaccine that we have go a long way," Daskalakis said.It may be possible to dilute a single dose vial into five effective doses, something the Food and Drug Administration should be able to approve more quickly, given the declaration of the outbreak as a national public health emergency.The administration is also actively combating stigma, he said.
