White House scrambles to play catch-up on monkeypox response
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is undergoing a course correction in its response to the monkeypox outbreak after weeks of logistical and bureaucratic delays providing testing, treatments and vaccines.
Biden officials acknowledge they are now playing catch-up as case numbers grow faster than initially expected, said people close to the administration, noting the number of infections has jumped from dozens to thousands in a short amount of time.
As part of its new approach, the administration is working to drastically increase the number of people vaccinated against monkeypox and improve access to an experimental treatment for those infected, in addition to naming a monkeypox coordinator to manage the response from the White House across agencies and with state and local governments.
Still, the administration faces a maze of obstacles, according to a dozen doctors on the frontlines and former public health officials who spoke with NBC News.
“I feel like we still have the opportunity to continue to control this, but it’s really a matter of getting the resources,” said Julie Morita, who advised President Joe Biden on Covid during the transition and led the Chicago Department of Public Health for nearly two decades.
“Public health needs to be resourced adequately, the vaccine supply needs to be increased, and communication efforts really need to be ramped up. But all those things can happen and can lead to control of this outbreak. It’s not too late," Morita said.
This week, New York and California were among numerous states that declared public health emergencies, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported infections in all but two states. According to an NBC News analysis of CDC data, the seven-day average of reported new cases increased from 45 on July 11 to 214 just two weeks later.
In total, the U.S. has reported nearly 6,000 cases since the beginning of May. The total worldwide exceeds 20,000.
More recently, though, administration officials have urged other men who have sex with men to cut down on high-risk behavior, like having multiple partners, until the outbreak is under control. They're attempting to get that word out to gay, transexual and bisexual communities through dating apps, at events and engagement with community leaders.
That’s a shift in strategy from earlier in the summer when officials were focused on vaccinating only those who had been infected and their close contacts. But as infections ballooned in the past month, state and local health officials were not able to keep pace with the rate of infections, said a person familiar with the efforts.
The federal government has said it plans to ship more than 700,000 doses to states, on top of the 300,000 already allocated, but officials haven’t detailed plans for any additional doses.