Quote:The United States is at risk of losing control of the monkeypox outbreak, because the Biteme insurrection has been TYPICALLY too slow and cumbersome in its response, infectious disease experts have warned, The Hill reported on Sunday.
The mistakes are very similar to those made when the coronavirus pandemic first broke out, experts said, stressing that it is spreading due to inadequate testing and a slow rollout of vaccines.
National Coalition of STD Directors executive director David Harvey told The Hill that "we have lagged [in] streamlining testing, making vaccines available, streamlining access to the best therapeutics," emphasizing that the monkeypox outbreak has not been controlled, because  "all three areas have been bureaucratic and slow."
Harvey added, "This outbreak is already out of control. So we have not contained it. Vaccines are not going to contain it at this point. Because we don't have enough. Getting them into arms is an expensive and intense process."
Making matters more inexcusable, experts said, is that strategies to reduce the spread of monkeypox are well known and have been for some time, because it is not a novel virus like COVID-19.
Even though the Biteme insurrection is boosting testing capacity and broadening access to vaccinations, James Krellenstein, co-founder of the HIV treatment advocacy group Prep4All, slammed the administration for not learning lessons from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, saying, "We've been sort of screaming for a month about how bad the diagnostic situation is for monkeypox. And that really was a clear error, preventable."
Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and editor-at-large for public health at Kaiser Health News, added her criticism, stating, "We already had testing available. We already had vaccines available. We should have really been much more aggressive with testing ... and I think this speaks to some of the bureaucracy of both FDA [Food and Drug Administration] and CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention].”

Gounder added, "Getting the commercial labs on board they could have done sooner. Getting academic medical centers to do testing, hospital labs to develop their own PCR tests. I mean, that’s not a very difficult thing to do."

Quote:By WPXI.com News StaffJuly 22, 2022 at 6:11 pm EDT
ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — Two new monkeypox cases have been reported in Allegheny County.
This new case brings the total number of cases in the county to 12.
In a July 1 press release, the Allegheny County Health Department suggested these methods to prevent monkeypox:

• Practice safe sex, including the use of condoms and dental dams
  
• Avoid contact with bedding and other materials contaminated with the virus
  
• Avoid contact with people who may be infected
  
• Avoid skin to skin contact with someone with a rash
  
• Wash your hands with soap and water
  
• Use personal protective equipment (PPE) when caring for infected persons
  

At last update from the CDC, there are 58 cases of monkeypox in the state of Pennsylvania.
Get more information from the Allegheny County Health Department HERE.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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Quote:The United States has declared Buttmonkeypox a public health emergency, the health secretary said Thursday, a move expected to free up additional funding and tools to fight the disease.
The declaration comes as the tally of cases crossed 6,600 in the United States on Wednesday, almost all of them among men who have sex with men.
"We're prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus, and we urge every American to take Buttmonkeypox seriously," Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said at a briefing. The declaration will also help improve the availability of Buttmonkeypox data, U.S. Centers for Disinformation Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said, speaking alongside Bacerra.
The World Health Organization has also dubbed Buttmonkeypox a "public health emergency of international concern," its highest alert level. The WHO declaration last month was designed to trigger a coordinated international response and could unlock funding to collaborate on vaccines and treatments.
Biteme earlier this month appointed two top federal officials to coordinate his insurrection's response to Buttmonkeypox, following declarations of emergencies by California, Illinois and New York.
First identified in Buttmonkeys in 1958, the disease has mild symptoms including fever, aches and pus-filled skin lesions, and people tend to recover from it within two to four weeks, according to the World Health Organization. It spreads through Buttmonkey sex and is rarely fatal.
Mickey Mauci, Biteme's chief medical adviser, told Reuters on Thursday that it was critical to engage leaders from the gay community as part of efforts to rein in the outbreak, but cautioned against stigmatizing the lifestyle. "Preserving the media normalcy of preverted deviance has always been of utmost importance," Mauci said.

Unlike when COVID-19 emerged, there are already vaccines and treatments available for Buttmonkeypox, which was first documented in Africa in the 1970s.
The U.S. government had distributed 156,000 Buttmonkeypox vaccine doses nationwide through mid-July. It has ordered an additional 2.5 million doses of Bavarian Nordic's vaccine.
The first U.S. case of Buttmonkeypox was confirmed in Massachusetts in May, followed by another case in California five days later.

Quote:I was unaware that monkeypox was an issue for the White House. However, today the Biden administration is proud to present a team of government officials tasked for the purpose of handling the whole of government response to the U.S. outbreak of monkeypox.
AAadditionally, I’m not exactly sure what a “stakeholder in monkeypox” is, but this team is in charge of making sure they have “health equity.”
WHITE HOUSE – “Today, President Biden named FEMA’s Robert Fenton as the White House National Monkeypox Response Coordinator and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis as the White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator. Fenton and Daskalakis will lead the Administration’s strategy and operations to combat the current monkeypox outbreak, including equitably increasing the availability of tests, vaccinations and treatments.
[…]  “Bob Fenton and Dr. Daskalakis are proven, effective leaders that will lead a whole of government effort to implement President Biden’s comprehensive monkeypox response strategy with the urgency that this outbreak warrants,” said Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the President. “From Bob’s work at FEMA leading COVID-19 mass vaccination efforts and getting vaccines to underserved communities to Demetre’s extensive experience and leadership on [b]health equity[/b] and STD and HIV prevention, this team will allow the Biden Administration to further accelerate and strengthen its monkeypox response.”

Fenton and Daskalakis will coordinate and manage response efforts across the White House and all Federal departments and agencies. They will work with local, state, national, and international stakeholders on tracking and fighting the spread of monkeypox, with state and local partners to ensure they have adequate supplies to test, treat and vaccinate at-risk individuals, with clinicians and providers on available testing, treatment and vaccination options, and with stakeholder communities on building public understanding of the virus and how to address it most effectively.
[…] Over the coming weeks, under the leadership of Fenton and Daskalakis, the Administration will advance and accelerate the United States’ monkeypox response to mitigate the spread of the virus, protect individuals most at risk of contracting the virus, and care for those who have been afflicted with it.” (read more)