New York City and Washington have run out of monkeypox vaccine doses on the same day they began to offer them to gay and bisexual men, officials say.
In less than one day, New York City’s 1,000 monkeypox vaccine doses were allocated to eligible New Yorkers, according to a letter sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul by New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and city council member Erik Bottcher.
“We are writing to urgently request that you work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to procure additional doses of the monkeypox vaccination for New York City,” the letter’s authors said.
The officials said they were grateful that a monkeypox vaccination site opened in Chelsea, “but the two hundred doses available was entirely inadequate to meet the demand.”
The online appointment booking system registers no available appointments at the time of publication, and the officials said many eligible New Yorkers were turned away from the clinic where “wait [times] were extensive.”
“Clearly, New York City has the greatest need in the country for monkeypox vaccines, and the State must do everything in its power to stop the spread and protect all New Yorkers,” they said.
Washington similarly ran out of vaccine doses, according to the district’s Department of Health.
“When additional doses become available, the vaccination scheduling portal will reopen,” the D.C. health department said on Twitter. “Stay tuned to DC Health’s social platforms for updates.”
When additional doses become available, the vaccination scheduling portal will reopen. Stay tuned to DC Health’s social platforms for updates.
— DC Health (@_DCHealth) June 27, 2022
LGBT Community ‘At-Risk’: Officials
New York City has more than 700,000 LGBT people, the largest population of any large metropolitan area, and with monkeypox being primarily transmitted among gay and bisexual men, the New York officials told the governor there was an urgent need to secure more doses.
“With such a substantial at-risk population, the fact that New York City has received a one-time allocation of merely 1,000 doses (being distributed over five days) is unacceptable,” they said.
Figures from the CDC show that New York state has a large number of cases nationally, with state health data showing that 30 of the 32 cases are clustered in New York City.
Although anyone can contract monkeypox, it is currently mostly spreading among the LGBT community, particularly men who have sex with men.
