Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned that the United States lacks a federal infrastructure capable of dealing with public health emergencies such as monkeypox.
“Now if monkeypox gains a permanent foothold in the United States and becomes an endemic virus that joins our circulating repertoire of pathogens, it will be one of the worst public health failures in modern times not only because of the pain and peril of the disease but also because it was so avoidable,” the former Food and Drug Administration head wrote in and op-ed for the New York Times. “Our lapses extend beyond political decision making to the agencies tasked with protecting us from these threats.”
