3 more monkeypox vaccination sites open in New York City as cases rise and demand soars
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Three mass vaccination sites for the monkeypox vaccine opened Sunday in New York City.
The sites, located in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, are for people who have already made appointments online:
Eyewitness News was at the site in Brooklyn as it opened this morning.
Some people who showed up, like Cole Francum, left happy and relieved.
"This time I, like, actually got one," he said after receiving his shot. "I was really excited."
But others met with disappointment.
"Mass vaccination is mass vaccination," said Joe Cadlec. "Who comes to an appointment for a mass vaccination? It's ridiculous. If they had simply said, 'Open for people with appointments,' I wouldn't be here."
The new sites join already-open clinics located at the NYC Health Department's Chelsea, Central Harlem, and Corona Sexual Health Clinic sites.
"Demand is significant," said NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan. "We think we have the technology now to manage that demand, but at the end of the day it's about supply."
Officials have said another clinic will open soon at NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Vanderbilt on Staten Island.
Demand continues to outpace supply when it comes to the monkeypox vaccine in the city, after 9,200 appointments were filled in just seven minutes when new doses became available Friday evening.
Click here for NYC Health's monkeypox information site
The Big Apple has become the epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S., primarily impacting the LGBTQ+ community, and Governor Kathy Hochul says there are tens of thousands of additional doses on the way.
The official monkeypox case count continues to grow, with 490 now reported across New York State.
Almost all of them, 461, are in New York City, but Westchester County is now up to 16 confirmed cases, while Nassau and Suffolk counties are reporting 4 and 3 confirmed cases, respectively. Additionally, there is one case each in Rockland, Sullivan, Chemung, Erie, St. Lawrence and Monroe counties.
The CDC says it has ordered 2.5 million doses of the vaccine, in addition to 2.5 million that were already ordered on July 1.
Nearly 33,000 of those doses will arrive in New York next week, but Mayor Eric Adams says the city needs more.
"We have 25% of the cases; this is ground zero, this is the epicenter," he said. "We had great communication with the White House, great communication with the officials there. We're hoping that they're going to hear us and bring in the numbers that we need."
The vaccine rollout has been plagued with glitches and delays, prompting the city to switch from outside vendors to its own website, the same platform used for COVID vaccination appointments.
"This is always a balance," said Dr. Vasan. "We need to get shots in arms as quickly as possible. But we also need to insure that equity is built in the beginning. That's what we're trying to do now."
Anyone can get and spread monkeypox, though the current cases are primarily spreading among social networks of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, so this community is currently at greater risk of exposure.
If you have a new or unexpected rash or other symptoms of monkeypox, contact a health care provider.
Monkeypox is harder to contract than COVID, as it requires close contact or the sharing of bodily fluid.
The symptoms of the rare virus include fever and rash, muscle aches, and chills.
Worldwide, monkeypox is deadly in between 3% to 6% of cases, though the death rate is less than 1% in areas with quality healthcare.
ALSO READ | Thousands of NYC monkeypox vaccine appointments filled in just 7 minutes
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