Congressional leaders have begun pressing the Biden administration over monkeypox, demanding to know what its plan is for handling the outbreak as cases continue to rise and treatments remain out of reach for many of those affected.
Senior members in the House and Senate, on both sides of the aisle, have asked Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra for answers about what his department is doing to handle the monkeypox outbreak, and several legislators question what they perceive as a failed response.
Almost 2,600 The cases have been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of Friday. These numbers are almost certainly an undercount due to limited testing capabilities for monkeypox, one of the issues lawmakers have raised in recent weeks.
Last week, Sen. Richard Burr (RN.C.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, called America’s response to the virus “disturbing” in a letter to Becerra, arguing that the administration has all the tools it needs to better address the outbreak.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (DN.Y.), who serve as chairs of the top congressional health panels, sent letters to the HHS secretary this week listing their concerns.
A group of 50 House Democrats also issued a letter to President Biden, urging him to declare a public health emergency due to monkeypox.
“Doing so would make available a range of authorities to accelerate the federal response and leverage additional resources to procure vaccines and quickly distribute them across the country,” they wrote.
Murray and Maloney said they will request briefings from HHS early next month.
While there has been no word so far on whether Becerra will attend a briefing, HHS released an updated fact sheet on the monkeypox response on Thursday. The agency said it has distributed about 200,000 Jynneos vaccines so far and expects about 800,000 more later this summer.
“Over the days and weeks ahead, HHS will continue to strengthen and accelerate its strategy to combat monkeypox and will work closely with public health officials and stakeholders in high-risk communities to bring vaccines, tests and treatments to communities across the country. the department said.
The agency acknowledged that testing capacities were limited at the start of the outbreak and said US testing capacity has now increased to 80,000 tests per week.
“Because there is no rapid test for monkeypox, it is particularly important that patients presenting to clinics not be turned away for testing,” Murray said in his letter to Becerra this week.
Although the supply of vaccines is increasing, there are still obstacles that prevent many from accessing treatments such as antivirals. Critics have been quick to point out that people who have been able to get treatment have generally been more privileged than those who may lack health insurance or a regular health care provider.
HHS said this week that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the CDC were working to simplify the process to obtain antivirals and reiterated that so far all rounds of treatment have been free.
The White House said during a news conference on Friday that it was taking steps to expand access to both vaccines and antivirals.
Without mentioning recent calls from lawmakers for enhanced action, officials including White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha addressed some of the areas of the monkeypox strategy that members of Congress have had problems.
“We have been leveraging every resource at our disposal since the early days of this outbreak,” Jha said.
According to Jha, more than 300,000 doses of vaccines to treat monkeypox have been shipped and hundreds of thousands more doses are expected to arrive from Denmark in the coming weeks.
The White House official also said efforts were being made to make Tecovirimat, a smallpox antiviral also known as TPOXX that is believed to be effective against monkeypox, more accessible.
“Both the CDC and the FDA have been working hard to streamline that treatment access process to make it easier for doctors to order … to get it for their patients. That is a work in progress, but it will continue to accelerate,” Jha said, adding that the administration was seeking to reduce the paperwork required to provide TPOXX, which is not technically licensed to treat monkeypox.
Jha also addressed lawmakers’ calls to declare a public health emergency, saying it was an ongoing conversation.
“We’re looking at that, looking at what are the ways the response could be improved, if any, by declaring a public health emergency,” he said.
“I think with public health emergencies, it’s always important to ask very specific questions about what exactly would allow us to do differently than what we’re doing now. And would that make it easier to respond to this outbreak? So I will just say that there is no final decision on this that I am aware of.”