This 1997 image provided by the CDC during an investigation into an outbreak of monkeypox, which took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire, and depicts the dorsal surfaces of the hands of a monkeypox case patient, who was displaying the appearance of the characteristic rash during its recuperative stage. (CDC via AP)
OAN NEWSROOM
UPDATED 1:00 PM PT – Monday, July 18, 2022
Officials at all levels of government are growing more worried about the spread of Monkeypox. Democrat lawmakers, Big Pharma and the World Health Organization are coming together to sound the alarm on the viral disease. Taking to the corporate airwaves Sunday, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monkeypox cases are increasing in the capital and the city needs at least 100,000 vaccine doses to respond to the current surge which can cause a potential spike in the future.
LIVE: Mayor Bowser Provides Update on Monkeypox Outbreak and Response Efforts https://t.co/1PVKf2vUz0
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) July 18, 2022
This comes as Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine recently took to Twitter and urged the federal government to send the Big Apple more vaccines. He revealed that New York City has 30 percent of all Monkeypox cases in the US, while having a disproportionately low number of the government’s vaccine supply. For her part, Mayor Bowser claimed that cities with robust testing resources will see more cases confirmed.
“We need more doses and we know that work is being done,” said Bowser. “We already have a very robust testing regime and we’ve modeled it on what we’re able to do with COVID. We’re going to continue to test and I think because of that robust testing we’re going to see more cases.”
The window for containing the spread of monkeypox in NYC is closing fast. Cases have more than doubled in the past week.
In a bad case of deja vu we are again confronting shortages of testing, treatment & vaccine.
Here’s our plan for aggressive action to meet this challenge. ? pic.twitter.com/afZ1DKzIFL
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) July 18, 2022
However, former FDA chief under President Trump and coincidentally now a Pfizer executive Scott Gottlieb has a more dire assessment of the latest virus. Gottlieb warned that the Biden administration has failed to contain Monkeypox and would categorize the virus’s spread as a pandemic. He further lamented that the Biden administration will likely be reluctant to own up to its mistakes and it’s downplaying the spread.
“I think they’re going to be reluctant to use the word pandemic because it complies that they’ve failed to contain this,” Gottlieb stated. “I think at this point we’ve failed to contain this. We’re now at the cusp of this becoming an endemic virus where this now becomes something that is persistent that we need to continue to deal with. I think that the window for getting control of this and containing this probably has closed and if it hasn’t closed it’s certainly starting to close. 11,000 cases across the world right now. 1,800 cases in the US and we’re probably just detecting a fraction of the actual cases.”
The pharma executive went on to say that there is only one FDA approved vaccine for Monkeypox and the federal government has to now go through the complicated inspection, approval and distribution processes at the same time. Gottlieb did commend the Biden administration for taking responsibility for the response from the CDC, but he argued that the White House should not have to take control of medical emergencies when there are institutions designed to handle those. He added that this is exactly what happened with the Covid-19 pandemic when President Trump was forced to take action amid a timid response by the medical establishment.
“The white house has intervened to take more control of the response away from CDC,” the doctor voiced. “This can’t be our response every time that the CDC drops the ball. The White House and political leadership needs to step in. That’s what happened here. It happened in COVID.”
Since May, DC has reported 122 #Monkeypox cases. In response, we’ve:
✅Administered 2600+ vaccines & continue to book appointments for eligible residents
✅Used contact tracing to identify 450+ close contacts
✅Acquired TPOXX, an antiviral treatment for use by healthcare partners— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) July 18, 2022
Meanwhile, the WHO is debating whether to call the Monkeypox spread a global health emergency. The body recently updated the public on the nearly 10,000 cases confirmed over the past few months. It also recently reported Monkeypox cases tripled across Europe which made health officials in neighboring regions concerned about a potential massive surge. WHO officials worried that the number of confirmed cases may not account for the real number of cases.
“Testing remains a challenge and it’s highly probable that there are a significant number of cases not being picked up,” expressed WHO officials. “Europe is the current epicenter of the outbreak, recording more than 80 percent of cases globally.”
In the meantime, a WHO emergency committee is expected to meet on Thursday to assess the threat of Monkeypox. Additionally, doctor Gottlieb claimed there won’t be an explosion of cases that come in the future. He pointed to the slow progression from contraction to showing symptoms.
Gottlieb also said lawmakers in Washington D.C. desperately need to reform its emergency response tactics. He said if those protocols remain the same then the US will be behind whenever a new pandemic hits US shores.