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The White House said that it is making an additional 360,000 vials of Jynneos monkeypox vaccine available from the national stockpile. The vials should be enough to provide 1.8 million doses, using new recommendations on a smaller dosage.
While the new recommendations, which call for using shallower, intradermal injection, use only one-fifth of the vaccine, not every provider has been trained on the new injection method. In addition, the vaccine's manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic, has not fully endorsed the lower dose, leading some sites to continue to give people the full dose.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that 50,000 vials of the vaccine will be set aside for communities hosting Pride and other similar events that will have high attendance of gay and bisexual men. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said distributing the vaccines at those events will help bring awareness to the issue.
She cautioned that people still need to be safe because the vaccine requires two doses to be fully protected against monkeypox.
"I want to emphasize that while we are offering the vaccine at these events to those at high risk, this is a two-dose vaccine series, and receiving the vaccine at these events will not provide protection at the event itself," Walensky said.
As of August 17, the CDC has confirmed 13,517 cases of monkeypox in the United States. New York has reported the most cases in the country, with 2,675. California has seen a rapid rise in cases, which have jumped to 2,356.