Why It ’ s So Hard to Get a Monkeypox Vaccine Right Now

When New York City’s department of health announced on July 12 that monkeypox vaccine appointments were available in several sites around the city, demand was so high that the scheduling website crashed. Every appointment was booked within hours, leaving many people unable to get shots. Vaccine rollout wasn’t supposed to go like this. When monkeypox cases were first detected in the U.S. in May, experts were reassuring. They stressed that—unlike COVID-19 when it first emerged—monkeypox is a known threat, with existing vaccines that could be deployed as necessary. But the reality has been messier. Vaccine supply is limited, distribution has run into roadblocks, and it has proven difficult to prioritize the highest-risk individuals for shots. The result is that, at least in certain areas, demand is overwhelming available supply. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “Everybody would like to get the vaccine, and there’s just not enough vaccine,” says Dr. Carlos del Rio, a distinguished professor in Emory University School of Medicine’s division of infectious diseases. “You have a little bit of a Hunger Games approach.” The shortage may be surprising, since officials previously said the country has enough vaccines in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). But many of the stockpiled ones are the older ACAM2000 vaccine, which is approved for use against smallpox and can also be used for monkeypox. It’s a live ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Vaccines Source Type: news