New York state to get 110,000 more doses of monkeypox vaccine

Thursday, July 28, 2022
NEW YORK (WABC) -- New York City will be getting 80,000 additional monkeypox vaccine doses, more than 10% of the 786,000 doses being made available Thursday by the federal government.

The New York State Department of Health will be getting another 30,000 doses for distribution in the rest of the state, separate from New York City's allocation.
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In total, the state will receive 110,000 doses.

"This is a big win for public health and New York," Senator Charles Schumer said. "The federal government has more work to do to fully contain the monkeypox threat, but today marks a critical step in that fight and delivers a huge sigh of relief to New Yorkers waiting for their monkeypox vaccine. More are on the way."

Thursday morning's announcement comes amid jockeying for vaccines by other states.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy sent President Joe Biden a letter asking for more vaccines, citing the state's proximity to New York and lessons learned during coronavirus about viruses not respecting state borders.

"We do not believe that New Jersey has received an equitable percentage of available vaccine through this allocation strategy," Murphy and Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli wrote in their letter. "I would like to request that HHS and the CDC reconsider the allocation strategy and increase New Jersey's vaccine allocation to account for our population size and considerations raised in this letter."



Meantime, Connecticut announced it will have 15 primary vaccination sites starting Monday, distributing 800 doses.

Applicants have to identifies as a gay or bisexual man with possible exposure within the past 14 days.

Connecticut has identified 28 cases, all in men.
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New York City is currently the nation's epicenter for the monkeypox outbreak, with more than 1,100 cases. That's compared to less than 100 cases in New Jersey and less than 50 in Connecticut.

But even with that, some experts question whether it is enough to meet the surging demand.

New York City's most recent posting of 17,000 online appointments were taken in less than half an hour.



Dr. Anthony Fauci is also speaking out about the importance of monkeypox vaccines.

"It's very clear with the spread of this that there now has to be a balance between vaccines available for those who clearly have been exposed, as well as those at risk," Fauci said. "And that's where now the change in the distribution...so that you anticipate that someone might get infected."

The U.S. has more than 4,600 total cases of monkeypox, about a third of them in New York state.
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The Biden administration is considering declaring monkeypox a public health emergency, following in the steps of the World Health Organization.

RELATED | LGBTQ activists call on Biden to address the rapid rise in monkeypox cases
Man recovering from monkeypox describes symptoms, experience


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