PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Federal health officials are once again trying to streamline the monkeypox vaccine rollout, in an attempt to get doses to people at highest risk.
The U.S. is setting aside an extra 50,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine for health departments in places that are hosting large LGBTQ events.
White House monkeypox response coordinator Robert Fenton says the change to the allocation formula is an effort to reach gay and bisexual men who are at highest risk of contracting the virus.
“This is important. It's an innovative way that we will bolster local efforts to meet people where they are and mitigate the spread of monkeypox,” Fenton said.
The Philadelphia Department of Public Health says they are working on outreach programs as their data show most cases are in Black and African American men, but the majority of vaccines have gone to white men.
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CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says, “We don't yet know how well this vaccine will work in this outbreak.”
The virus is most commonly spread during sexual activity. While the CDC encourages people at high risk to get vaccinated, Walensky says, there are other important steps people can take to reduce their risk, “including temporarily limiting sexual partners.”
Walensky says when they provide vaccine access at LGBTQ events, they also want people to realize benefits of the vaccine are not immediate.
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“While we are offering the vaccine at these events to those at high risk, this is a two-dose vaccine series, and receiving the vaccine at these events will not provide protection at the event itself,” she said.
“Although we anticipate vaccines will provide protection, temporarily reducing or avoiding behaviors that increase your risk of monkeypox exposure is important, especially between your first and second doses of vaccine.”
The roll out of the vaccine has repeatedly been hampered and delayed by red tape. The Department of Health and Human Services has changed how the vaccine is administered, stretching one dose to five. Walensky said the CDC is confident the change is effective.
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