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A Monkeypox Vaccine Is Available for At-Risk New Yorkers - The New York Times

A Monkeypox Vaccine Is Available for At-Risk New Yorkers - The New York Times

A Monkeypox Vaccine Is Available for At-Risk New Yorkers - The New York Times
Jun 24, 2022 2 mins, 24 secs

Demand for the vaccine was high as the city began offering the vaccine at one Chelsea clinic, where a long line formed and people were turned away.

Facing a growing outbreak of the monkeypox virus, New York City health officials expanded access to a monkeypox vaccine on Thursday, offering it to a new group of people who may be at higher risk: men who have had multiple or anonymous male sexual partners over the last two weeks.

New York City is the first American jurisdiction to broaden access to the vaccine beyond close contacts of people infected, following similar moves in the United Kingdom and Canada.

Public health officials globally have been scrambling to craft an effective response to the outbreak, which has been spreading in dozens of countries since mid-May, particularly among networks of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.

New York City reported 30 cases of the monkeypox virus as of Thursday.

The opening of the first clinic to offer the vaccine in New York City on Thursday was not announced publicly beforehand.

There is a limited supply of the preferred vaccine to fight monkeypox, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Though the federal government owns about 1.4 million doses, Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president, said that there were only about 1,000 doses of vaccine on hand for the city’s residents.

Gay men’s health advocates have been calling for expanded access to the vaccine for weeks.

There is a great desire, he said, to get at least one dose of the two-dose vaccine before this weekend, which will provide at least some protection against spread, even among people not planning to have sexual experiences.

The web appointment system should also have more appointments beginning Sunday, officials said.

It mostly spreads by skin-to-skin contact, but can also be spread by respiratory droplets from prolonged close contact or contact with shared objects like towels?

The likelihood of the virus being spread during sexual contact is high, but the risk of transmission in other ways is low.

While Covid-19 is a tiny RNA virus that can spread through aerosols, monkeypox is a larger DNA virus that is transmitted mostly through close physical contact and has a much smaller mutation rate than RNA viruses.

Joseph Osmundson, a microbiologist at New York University who is among a group of activists pushing for more access to testing and vaccination, said that there was “immense frustration in the community” about access to the vaccine, and he hoped that other cities would follow in New York’s footsteps and open clinics soon.

At the same time, he said, health officials should make sure to better communicate the launch of clinics ahead of time to ensure broader access to the doses.

But within a half-hour, scores of vaccine seekers started arriving, and a long line quickly formed, he said

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