75% of NYC monkeypox cases are in Manhattan, thousands of vaccine doses secured, officials say
As cases of monkeypox mushroom in New York City, local and federal officials said Thursday that they are rushing to distribute thousands of vaccine doses and that about 75% of city cases have cropped up in Manhattan.
Monkeypox cases in NYC double in a week: Dept. of Health
The virus, which is believed to primarily spread through intimate contact and has historically been confined to regions of Africa, first emerged in New York City in the spring. The rare virus appears to present a far less lethal threat than COVID.
As of Thursday, the city’s Health Department had reported 141 suspected cases, with about 33% pinpointed in the Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen areas of Manhattan.
Digitally-colorized electron microscopic (EM) image depicting a monkeypox virion (virus particle), obtained from a clinical sample associated with a 2003 prairie dog outbreak, published June 6, 2022. The image depicts a thin section image from a human skin sample. On the left are mature, oval-shaped virus particles, and on the right are the crescents and spherical particles of immature virions. (Smith Collection/Gado/)
Nationwide, about 600 cases had been confirmed through Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though health experts believe the tally may be a significant undercount due to limited testing. No deaths have been reported.
The city Health Department, which has said monkeypox cases are primarily spreading among men who have sex with men, has repeatedly apologized after tech difficulties dogged its vaccine appointment rollout on Wednesday.
Monkeypox cases in NYC double in a week: Dept. of Health
The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, said Thursday that the city launched its vaccine effort in Chelsea two weeks ago “with an extremely limited supply because that’s where the cases are.”
“Equity is an incredibly hard thing to preserve in an environment of scarce supply,” he said at a news conference in Harlem. “What we wanted to show is that we were stepping up with the tools that we had, and we’re learning from it.”
New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan speaks during a press conference with Mayor Eric Adams, left, in March. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/)
Vasan emphasized that more shots are on the way, and urged New Yorkers who fall into high-risk categories to take precautions.
“We’re asking New Yorkers if they don’t feel well, if they’re worried about someone else not feeling well, to take precautions,” he said. “We are not putting out a message that says: Don’t have sex.”
Dr. Raj Panjabi, the White House’s senior director for global health security and biodefense, said at the news conference that the federal government is on a multi-month schedule to ramp up vaccine access.
He said the federal government was working Thursday to uncork 144,000 doses nationally, part of a series of tranches with an aim of releasing 2.2 million doses by the first half of 2023.
People line up outside the Chelsea Sexual Health Clinic at 303 9th Ave. in Manhattan, New York, on Thursday, July 7, 2022. The clinic is providing monkeypox vaccines. (Barry Williams/)
The state health commissioner, Dr. Mary Bassett, said an initial supply has been sent out and placed in freezers.
“We’re still working out the details of the moving from the freezers to shots in arms,” Bassett said at the news conference. “But we have got the vaccinations.”
She said distribution may launch next week. “We’re working as fast as we can,” she said.
Monkeypox is a generally milder cousin of the long-eradicated smallpox. The first human monkeypox infection was discovered in 1970.
In this Centers for Disease Control and Prevention handout graphic, symptoms of one of the first known cases of the monkeypox virus are shown on a patient's hand on June 5, 2003.
It does not spread easily like COVID — which is also on the rise in the city — but can still generate nasty and sometimes fatal symptoms.
“I think people are also looking at monkeypox through their COVID antenna,” Vasan said, adding that “COVID is certainly something that we’re all at risk for.”
He said monkeypox can also infect anyone across New York — not just gay men — but added that the virus demands “a more circumscribed and targeted approach” than coronavirus.
At a news conference in Brooklyn, Mayor Adams said the city is taking the monkeypox threat seriously.
“Be prepared,” he urged New Yorkers, “not panicked.”
