Lessons to learn look more like failures repeated

Caught out on one virus, US health agency heads down wrong path on monkeypox, observers say

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, has come under fire over its slow response to the monkeypox outbreak in the United States, and some suggest its tardiness mirrors mistakes made early in the coronavirus pandemic.

The CDC's recent admission that it mishandled the country's COVID-19 outbreak in the crucial early stages has prompted soul-searching within an organization that now faces a fresh test in the form of another rapidly spreading virus.

Health officials identified the first monkeypox infection in the US on May 17 in Boston, the CDC said. New York City identified a case the next day.

By Monday, there had been 15,432 cases in the US－the highest number in the world, but with no related deaths.

The infectious disease can be treated with a two-shot vaccine known as Jynneos. But after the first cases were announced, about 300,000 doses owned by the US became stuck for weeks in Denmark－where the vaccine is made－waiting for approval from the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, which came in late July.

At the time of the first diagnosed case, the federal government's national stockpile amounted to about 2,400 doses of monkeypox vaccine in the US, according to The Associated Press. It needed tens of thousands more.

The federal rollout of vaccines was severely delayed because the FDA said it first needed to inspect Danish vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic's facility in Denmark where it fills vials. The vaccine is kept there because its freezers can keep it at minus 50 C.

Dawn O'Connell, head of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which oversees the national stockpile, ordered 36,000 vaccine doses on May 20 and an additional 36,000 doses on May 27. It hasn't been enough.

Monkeypox infections rose during Pride activities in June, a month when gay men and women celebrate their sexuality with parties. Many contracted monkeypox, according to media reports.

More doses of the vaccine began arriving in the US in July. But the delay in shipments likely helped spread the virus that causes painful symptoms, public health officials said.

David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told China Daily: "In retrospect, I do think that the CDC was a bit too slow to respond to the monkeypox outbreak. The main reason for this is that, unlike COVID-19, monkeypox is a disease that has been with us for decades－and without causing major outbreaks like the one we are experiencing now.

"Again, in retrospect, it's easy to see how the conditions were different this time, and how the current outbreak could have been anticipated a bit better, but I think there was some complacency because we hadn't seen major global outbreaks of monkeypox before."