Monkeypox ‘can be contained’ in US, White House doctor says after WHO triggers highest alert
- The White House said it was confident authorities could eliminate monkeypox from the US with vaccinations
- The World Health Organization on Saturday declared the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency
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World Health Organization declares monkeypox a public health emergency
Monkeypox “can be contained” in the US, with the goal of eventually eliminating the illness as testing and vaccinations ramp up, the White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator said.
Ashish Jha repeated that, with more than 2,000 cases nationwide, the US Department of Health and Human Services is weighing whether to declare monkeypox a public health emergency.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), declared the global outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Saturday.
“We think we can get our arms around this thing,” Jha said in an interview with CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. “But obviously, if we need further tools, we will invoke them as we need them.”
“Monkeypox can be contained, absolutely,” Jha said, through testing and vaccines. The US can test 80,000 people per week and has 300,000 vaccines, he said.
The US should have “an additional 750,000 doses” of vaccine by the end of the month, Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to US President Joe Biden, said on MSNBC’s The Sunday Show.