The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday that it has ordered an additional 2.5 million doses of monkeypox vaccines to respond to the escalating outbreak.
Driving the news: "Our strategy is to secure additional doses for the near-term while also making sure we have a steady supply in the weeks and months to come," HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell said in a statement.
- The order of JYNNEOS vaccines announced Friday will begin arriving in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) by 2023, HHS said, "bringing the federal government’s available supply of vaccine to treat monkeypox to nearly 7 million doses by mid-2023."
- An additional 131,000 doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine just arrived in the strategic national stockpile, bringing the total number of doses available to states across the U.S. to more than 300,000 since late May, HHS said.
The big picture: Public health officials are racing to halt the spread before the disease becomes endemic in more countries, Axios' Eileen Drage O'Reilly and Erin Davis report.
- Monkeypox cases are quickly rising, with New York City seeing a tripling in patients over the last week.
- CDC director Rochelle Walensky also said Friday in a press call that the transgender community is overrepresented among the population that has been infected with monkeypox.
- HHS earlier this month ordered 2.5 million doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine that will begin arriving in the national stockpile over the next year.
Go deeper... "Unprecedented" spread of monkeypox spurs call for faster response
