White House names co-ordinator to lead U.S. response to monkeypox

U.S. President Joe Biden is set to name top officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to serve as the White House co-ordinators to combat the growing monkeypox outbreak.

The White House said Biden will announce Tuesday that he has tapped Robert Fenton, who helped lead FEMA's mass vaccination effort for COVID-19 as the agency's acting administrator when Biden first took office, as the White House co-ordinator. Dr. Demetre Daskalakis of the CDC will be named his deputy. Daskalakis, the director of the agency's HIV prevention division and a national expert on issues affecting the LGBTQ community, previously helped lead New York City's COVID-19 response.

The White House said the pair would co-ordinate "strategy and operations to combat the current monkeypox outbreak, including equitably increasing the availability of tests, vaccinations and treatments." The announcement mirrors the Biden administration's response to COVID-19, when the president centralized virus response operations out of the White House.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert and Biden's top science adviser, praised their appointments Monday night and said he hoped they would tighten the co-ordination between the various federal agencies involved in the monkeypox response.

"I personally think we're dealing with a really serious issue here," Fauci said. "There are a lot of unknowns. There are a lot of knowns about monkeypox, but there's still a lot of unknowns."

The monkeypox virus spreads through prolonged and close skin-to-skin contact, including hugging, cuddling and kissing, as well as sharing bedding, towels and clothing. People getting sick so far have been primarily men who have sex with men. But health officials emphasize that the virus can infect anyone. The virus may cause fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and pimple-like bumps on many parts of the body.

The U.S. saw its first case of the monkeypox virus confirmed on May 18 and now has over 5,800 confirmed infections.

Scientists say that, unlike campaigns to stop COVID-19, mass vaccinations against monkeypox won't be necessary. They think targeted use of the available doses, along with other measures, could shut down the expanding epidemics that were recently designated by the World Health Organization as a global health emergency.

Still, the Biden administration has faced criticism over the pace of vaccine availability for monkeypox. Clinics in major cities like New York and San Francisco say they haven't received enough of the two-shot vaccine to meet demand. The White House said it has made more than 1.1 million doses of vaccine available and has helped to boost domestic diagnostic capacity to 80,000 tests per week.

The type of monkeypox virus identified in this outbreak is rarely fatal, and people usually recover within weeks. But the lesions and blisters caused by the virus are painful, and can prevent swallowing or bowel movements if in the throat or anus.

California on Monday became the second state in three days to declare a public health emergency over monkeypox, following action this weekend by New York.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said that declaration will help the state co-ordinate a government-wide response, seek more vaccines, and lead outreach and education efforts on where people can get treatment and vaccines.

"We'll continue to work with the federal government to secure more vaccines, raise awareness about reducing risk, and stand with the LGBTQ community fighting stigmatization," the Democratic governor said in a statement.

Nearly 800 cases of monkeypox have been reported in California, according to state public health officials.