On Saturday morning, news broke on the World Health Organization's decision to declare monkeypox a global health emergency. 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," according to AP News, but did so in response to there being more than 16,000 cases of monkeypox reported from 75 countries.
The global emergency classification is the highest alert the WHO can issue, and adds to the list of the other two such global emergencies taking place presently, "the coronavirus pandemic and the continuing effort to eradicate polio," as highlighted in coverage from BBC.
