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President Joe Biden has chosen top officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to lead the nation’s fight against monkeypox.
Robert Fenton of FEMA will serve as the White House National Monkeypox Response Coordinator, and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis will be deputy coordinator, the White House said in a statement Tuesday.
The two officials will lead the administration’s strategy and operations to combat the current monkeypox outbreak, including increasing the availability of tests, vaccinations and treatments, the statement said.
The appointments come as the administration has faced criticism for over the pace of vaccine availability for monkeypox, a rare viral infection that does not usually cause serious illness but can result in hospitalization or death. Monkeypox spreads through close, physical contact between people.
More than 20,000 cases of monkeypox have been detected globally, with more than 5,800 reported cases in the United States. Last Friday, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a «public health emergency of international concern,» joining COVID-19 and polio in that designation.
Clinics in major cities like New York and San Francisco say they haven’t received enough of the two-shot vaccine to meet demand, and some have had to stop offering the second dose of the vaccine to ensure supply of first doses.
