The Biden administration is scrambling to build up supplies of monkeypox vaccines to combat the current outbreak, which has led to 1,470 cases.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday that it has ordered 2.5 million doses of Bavarian Nordic’s two-dose Jynneos vaccine for orthopoxvirus, the family of viruses that includes monkeypox and smallpox. The order announced Friday adds to a previous order for 2.5 million doses, which will bring the total number of doses available in the United States up to 7 million by mid-2023.
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“Our monkeypox vaccination strategy continues to prioritize the equitable distribution of vaccines to communities and individuals with the greatest need,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said. “ I want to acknowledge that if this time the demand for vaccines from jurisdictions is higher than our current available supply and we know that this is frustrating.”
HHS has shipped out all of the roughly 156,000 doses ordered by states and local jurisdictions, with about 100,000 having been delivered just this past week. The department also announced that an additional tranche of 131,000 doses has made it to the Strategic National Stockpile and will be made available to the states that order them.
The Food and Drug Administration has recently completed the required inspection of a facility making the vaccines in Denmark. Once the agency issues its approval, the facility will make another 780,000 doses available.
Once the vaccines have been delivered, states decide how to distribute them. The overwhelming majority of cases have been among men who have sex with men, though demographic data are limited. States voluntarily report it to the CDC, which only has information for about 700 cases. Only a few confirmed cases were in women, and there were none among children.
Messaging from the CDC has been aimed at the gay and transgender community and among those who are susceptible to HIV and are actively taking prophylactic medications, Walensky said. The agency has held listening sessions with advocacy organizations such as PrEP4All, the Centers for AIDS Research, and GLAAD, as well as used social media and networking sites in a bid to reach the community at large.
Vaccine uptake has been swift in some major metropolitan areas. New York City and D.C., for example, ran out of available Jynneos vaccines within hours of an online portal to schedule appointments opening. New York City will make more than 8,000 additional appointments available Friday evening, and another 4,000 shots will be available via referral from “community partner organizations serving highest-risk patients,” the city health department said.
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“We expect this release of appointments will go quickly given the demand we have seen and are working with our federal partners to acquire more doses as quickly as possible,” said city Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan.
