As cases of monkeypox mushroom in New York City, local and federal officials said Thursday that they are rushing to distribute thousands of vaccine doses and that about 75% of city cases have cropped up in Manhattan.
The virus, which is believed to primarily spread through intimate contact and has historically been confined to regions of Africa, first emerged in New York City in the spring. The rare virus appears to present a far less lethal threat than COVID.
As of Thursday, the city’s Health Department had reported 119 suspected cases, about 33% pinpointed in the Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen areas of Manhattan.
Nationwide, about 600 cases had been confirmed through Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though health experts believe the tally may be a significant undercount due to limited testing. No deaths had been reported.
The city Health Department, which has said monkeypox cases are primarily spreading among men who have sex with men, has repeatedly apologized after tech difficulties dogged its vaccine appointment rollout on Wednesday.
The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, said Thursday that the city launched its vaccine effort in Chelsea two weeks ago “with an extremely limited supply because that’s where the cases are.”
“Equity is an incredibly hard thing to preserve in an environment of scarce supply,” he said at a news conference in Harlem. “We wanted to show that we were stepping up with the tools that we had, and we’re learning from it.”
[ Monkeypox cases in NYC double in a week: Dept. of Health ]
Vasan emphasized that more shots are on the way, and urged New Yorkers who fall into high-risk categories to take precautions.
“We’re asking new Yorkers if they don’t feel well, if they’re worried about someone else not feeling well, to take precautions,” he said. “We are not putting out a message that says: Don’t have sex.”
Dr. Raj Panjabi, the White House’s senior director for global health security and biodefense, said at the news conference that the federal government is on a multi-month schedule to ramp up vaccine access.
He said the federal government was working Thursday to uncork 144,000 doses nationally, part of a series of tranches with an aim of releasing 2.2 million doses in the first half of 2022.
The state health commissioner, Dr. Mary Bassett, said an initial supply has been sent out and placed in freezers.
“We’re still working out the details of the moving from the freezers to shots in arms,” Bassett said at the news conference. “But we have got the vaccinations.”
She said distribution may launch next week. “We’re working as fast as we can,” she said.
Monkeypox is a generally milder cousin of the long-eradicated smallpox. The first human monkeypox infection was discovered in 1970.
It does not spread easily like COVID — which is also on the rise in the city — but can still generate nasty and sometimes fatal symptoms.
“I think people are also looking at monkeypox antenna,” Vasan said, adding that “COVID is certainly something that we’re all at risk for.”
He said monkeypox can also infect anyone across New York — not just gay men — but added that the virus demands “a more circumscribed and targeted approach” than coronavirus.
At a news conference in Brooklyn, Mayor Adams said the city is taking the monkeypox threat seriously.
“Be prepared,” he urged New Yorkers, “not panicked.”