SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – San Francisco will receive 30,000 fewer monkeypox vaccine doses than public health officials said they asked for in the coming days, but there will be enough shots to distribute to vaccination sites next week.
For more, stream KCBS Radio now.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health announced on Friday it will receive 4,163 doses of the vaccine from the federal government, after asking for 35,000 "as a first step on a path toward the goal of vaccinating every person in San Francisco who could benefit from protection," officials said in an emailed statement to KCBS Radio.
Public health officials said they will prioritize administering vaccine doses to people "who have had a direct exposure to the virus" and distribute the doses to "a network of community clinics that can schedule appointments," including health systems like Kaiser Permanente, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation's Strut clinic and public health department sites like the San Francisco City Clinic.
San Francisco recently closed its monkeypox vaccine clinics after running out of shots, but the need for doses has remained high as cases continue to disproportionately affect gay and bisexual men, transgender people and others in the city's LGBTQ community.
"I want to acknowledge that, at this time, the demand for vaccines from jurisdictions is higher than our current available supply, and we know that this is frustrating," U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said in a briefing, prior to San Francisco's announcement on Friday.
Across the country, there have been about 1,500 reported monkeypox cases. The San Francisco Department of Public Health on Friday said there were 86 confirmed and probable cases, up from 52 a week ago and from six a month ago.
Walensky said the median patient is 36 years old, with some as young as 18 and old as 76. The "vast majority" of cases are among bisexual, gay and queer men, according to the agency.
Per Walensky, the CDC is shifting to a model which will prioritize getting vaccine doses to places that have the most cases. More commercial labs are now doing testing as well.
"We know monkeypox symptoms usually start within three weeks of exposure to the virus, so we anticipate we may see an increase in cases throughout the month of July and into August," Walensky said.
Dawn O'Connell, the Department of Health and Human Services' assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said more than 150,000 doses had been distributed nationally before Friday, when federal officials released 131,000 additional doses for states and jurisdictions to order "for delivery as early as Monday."
Federal health officials have ordered millions more doses, but most of those won't be available until later this year or 2023.
DOWNLOAD the Audacy App
SIGN UP and follow KCBS Radio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Related
