Washington:
The White House said Sunday it was confident authorities could “eliminate” monkeypox from the United States by accelerating the rollout of vaccines and treatments to stop the spread of the virus.
“I think monkeypox can absolutely be contained,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, told CBS News talk show “Face the Nation.”
“We acted quickly,” said Jha, who challenged allegations that President Joe Biden’s administration was being trampled when the first cases began to surface in US states more than two months ago.
He said Washington has undertaken a “very substantial” ramp-up of its response, including the recent acquisition of about 800,000 vaccine doses from Denmark, since the US outbreak began in May when supplies of monkeypox vaccines were limited.
“The plan is to eliminate this virus from the United States. I think we can do that,” Jha said.
The World Health Organization on Saturday declared the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency, affecting nearly 17,000 people in 74 countries.
US lawmakers and mayors have complained about the response from the Biden administration, including House Democrat Adam Schiff, who wrote this week to the country’s secretary of health to warn that “the federal government is failing to provide the response it needs.”
The center of the US outbreak is New York City, where most of the recorded cases occur in men who have sex with men.
Jha acknowledged that the virus is largely spreading among the gay male community, but stressed that “there are also other people who are at risk”, especially those who are in close personal contact with people who are infected.
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