New York is the country’s forefront defense against monkeypox. I’m having a hard time responding.

“People are constantly in and out of New York,” said Demeter Dascalakis, head of the CDC’s HIV prevention department and an official working on the agency’s monkeypox response, in an interview Monday. “The risks are high not only in terms of ensuring that the health of the people living there is addressed, but also in terms of the potential for imports and exports of viruses from travelers.”

Make your job more difficult: Covid-19 Exploding in new york..

Governor Kathy Hokul, Mayor Eric Adams, and public health officials Pressured the Biden administration for more monkeypox vaccine Access to treatment, opening a vaccination clinic in the hotspot area and launching a new one Awareness campaign — Meanwhile, Covid infection rates in New York City and its surrounding suburbs have recovered to levels not seen since spring.

“We are working on many simultaneous challenges. As you know, there are an increasing number of cases of Covid caused by two new, more contagious variants,” said City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan. Said at a public meeting on Thursday. “In addition to this, the recent monkeypox epidemic at this stage was a real challenge for our department and city to manage co-infectious diseases.”

The state’s former focus on the fight against Covid has diminished. And because the virus is far beyond the point of containment, some public health experts argue that New York is right to refocus on what still exists.

Without a containment window, monkeypox can be unique to the United States. In short, monkeypox is so prevalent that it is present on a regular basis, said Linawen, a professor of public health at George Washington University and a former member of the Baltimore City Department of Health.

“We have the opportunity to contain monkeypox and we need to do everything to do so. We are far beyond that window of Covid. Unlike monkeypox, rapid action by health authorities and individuals It can make a big difference in the trajectory of this disease, “Wen said in an interview. “I don’t think I’m wrong. In fact, I think we should pay more attention to monkeypox.”

New York state health officials reported 1,111 confirmed cases of monkeypox across the state as of Monday. 414 reported 10 days ago About 44 times with 25 cases confirmed 1 month ago.. Meanwhile, about 5,000 new Covid cases were recorded on Monday in New York, with an average of 35 per 100,000 people (46 per 100,000 in New York City) over a seven-day period across the state. Last seen during the late spring surge..

New York State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said she believed she could contain monkeypox.

“I still think we can contain this. She said in a press conference with the governor on Wednesday that the state had tools to fight monkeypox,” Covid didn’t. ” 60,000 vaccinations distributed by the authorities..

“We have vaccines, we have treatments … we have diagnostic tests,” said Bassett, who advised those who feel sick to see a doctor given the limitations of monkeypox testing.

New York City sees the majority of monkeypox cases in the state and reports 1,040 confirmed cases on Monday, but experts and community leaders say this number is much higher than reported. I believe.

Part of the problem was the lack of testing, as public health experts claim. This is a problem compared to the early days of the Covid pandemic, which was under-tested.

“There could be 5 or 10 uncounted cases for each case identified because it wasn’t fully tested,” Wen said. “It’s important from Covid. It is immeasurable that we have not learned a good lesson. 19 And we repeat it again. “

Even if monkeypox testing is done, it is often done only for symptomatic individuals with lesions, excluding asymptomatic people and those who have only developed other symptoms, she said. This can make it difficult to prioritize vaccination. Vaccination can prevent post-exposure illness if given early enough.

Hochul announced on Monday that the Ministry of Health will allow Quest Diagnostics to test monkeypox in New York, expanding its testing capabilities in the state.

Public health officials are very much in agreement that the ability to control outbreaks depends on vaccine supply and access. For example, Wen said the vaccine can prevent the onset of the disease if given within a few days of exposure. Or, if given within a few weeks, it can reduce the chance of serious illness.

New York City has made it possible to book 17,000 monkeypox vaccines on Friday, out of the 25,963 doses received from the federal government. Authorities have released schedules in bulk to reach more people, but the system for scheduling schedules has been plagued primarily by technical issues.

The remaining 8,963 doses are reserved for referrals from community-based organizations servicing high-risk New Yorkers, with provider-managed vaccinations and known known by the City Health Department through contact tracing. Authorities said Thursday that it would be used to contact cases.

White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha said Wednesday that the two-shot Jynneos allocation in New York was “a sufficient vaccine for the first shot for about 50% of the at-risk population.”

Monkeypox can occur in anyone, but the outbreak in New York is predominantly a sexually transmitted disease among men who have sex with other men.

manager Ritchie TorresHomosexuals expressed concern that monkeypox could become a deeply sexually transmitted disease and elicited similarities to the Covid pandemic.

“The federal response to the outbreak of monkeypox is a terrible failure, and the failure of monkeypox is even worse than the failure of Covid. I feel that Covid was destined to go out of control,” Torres said in an interview. Told. “In contrast, monkeypox does not spread much more efficiently. There are monkeypox tests and monkeypox vaccines. There were tools to contain the outbreak, but there was an ineffective public health system. “

He pointed out the failure of the FDA to fail to vaccinate one million doses from Denmark and the city’s failure to fairly schedule LGBTQ colored reservations, a false response to the public discriminating against the LGBTQ community. He said it was part of the long history of the health authorities.

Asked about this criticism, Bassett instead accused “historical discrimination” against Africans, saying that monkeypox was “ignored as an infectious disease” when it was only prevalent in Africa.

“As for the current outbreak, it has now occurred on all continents since it began in Western Europe and other countries, mainly affecting gay MSMs. [men who have sex with men] The community, and we are all mobilizing as soon as possible to deal with it, “she said. “I can’t agree with the assessment that this reflects indifference to the MSM community, but there aren’t enough vaccines.”

According to the latest urban data on July 19, 31% of reported cases with monkeypox were white, compared to 21.4% for Hispanics / Latinos, 17.2% for blacks, and Asia Pacific. The islanders are 3.4%. .. The remaining 27% are other or unknown. According to the data..

The city refused to provide demographic data for vaccinated people, but anecdotal reports indicate that outsiders are traveling to Harlem and Bronx to administer monkeypox.

“People who never die from Bronx come in for vaccines,” Torres said.