The U.S. is facing a shortage of the monkeypox vaccine as the outbreak grows rapidly. The White House is pursuing a controversial strategy where each person only gets a fraction of the full dose.
It was about three months ago that the first case of monkeypox was discovered in the U.S. Now, there are well over 13,000 cases. That is more than any other country in the world. The U.S. government's plan to get the disease in check is largely based on a vaccine, but there are a lot of questions about how well that plan might work. So here to take on those questions are two of our NPR health correspondents, Pien Huang and Michaeleen Doucleff. Hey, you two.KELLY: Pien, you start.
HUANG: In reality, this dose-splitting strategy is not yielding as much as federal officials had hoped. And yet, Del Beccaro says it seems like the government is already using this new math when they count how many doses they're sending to health departments. BOGHUMA TITANJI: I tell them, you know, we do know that you're going to get some protection from this. Some protection is better than no protection. We also do know that it can reduce the severity of the disease if you do develop the disease. But we don't know for a fact that you would be completely protected from getting monkeypox.
DOUCLEFF: Yeah. So there's never been a Phase 3 clinical trial to measure efficacy. But this vaccine, which is called JYNNEOS, was actually developed to stop smallpox. Versions of this vaccine were what were used to eradicate smallpox. And so versions of this vaccine have been around for decades and have been given to hundreds of millions of people. So it has a very long track record.
HUANG: Actually, yes. I mean, there's a huge demand right now. And there's many more people that want the vaccine than can actually get it. And one of the biggest concerns at the moment is equity. You know, a disproportionately high number of Black, Latinx members of the gay and queer community are getting monkeypox. And the data suggests that they have had a harder time getting access to vaccines.
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