New York state will receive 110,000 new doses of the monkeypox vaccine — with 80,000 coming to the Big Apple alone — as the Biden administration finally released the stock of shots and is expected to declare the virus a public health emergency.
Aides to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told The Post on Thursday that the new allocation is coming to New York from the pot of 786,000 monkeypox vaccines previously stuck in Denmark thanks to an FDA snafu.
Federal officials finally signed off on distributing the roughly 1 million doses of stranded monkeypox vaccine on Wednesday.
“Today, I am happy to announce that of the 786,000 Denmark vaccines now in our national stockpile, and cleared by the FDA, New York City will be getting more than 80,000 doses, which is more than 10%. Moreover, New York State will be receiving 30,000 individual doses. This is a big win for public health, and New York,” said Schumer in a statement.
“The federal government has more work to do to fully contain the monkeypox threat, but today marks a critical step in that fight and delivers a huge sigh of relief to New Yorkers waiting for their monkeypox vaccine. More are on the way.”
Around 80,000 monkeypox vaccines will be coming to New York City alone. AFP via Getty Images
People wait in line for the monkeypox vaccine in Bushwick on July 17. AFP via Getty ImagesThe Department of Health and Human Services is poised to declare monkeypox a public health emergency, following the lead of the World Health Organization last weekend.
“They are in transit now,” Schumer spokesman Angelo Roefaro told The Post of the new doses.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded 4,639 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the US as of Wednesday, including 1,228 in New York state.
In New York City alone, 1,148 have been diagnosed, according to the data.
The WHO declared monkeypox a public health emergency last week. REUTERSThe Biden administration had come under intense pressure to get the shots cleared and distributed after public health activists and newspapers in New York highlighted the 1.1 million doses stuck at the plant in Denmark.
Officials initially claimed they could not be immediately imported because the Food and Drug Administration had failed to inspect a portion of the plant and the embattled agency refused to accept sign-offs from European regulators.
Outrage grew after the New York Times revealed that the FDA had quietly okayed more than 300,000 doses, but federal officials had let them sit for weeks.
