U.S. declares monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency

The Biden administration is declaring a public health emergency for the monkeypox outbreak in the United States, which now counts more infections from the virus than any other country in the world. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced the decision at a briefing Thursday.

Over the last decade, nationwide emergency declarations like this have previously been declared only for the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid crisis, and the Zika virus outbreak in 2017.

As it did for COVID-19, the move by Becerra to declare an emergency could unlock a broad swath of flexibilities in funding and regulations to respond to the spread of monkeypox.