U.S. state officials fault rollout of monkeypox vaccine: NYT

NEW YORK, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The federal government's distribution of monkeypox vaccine has been blemished by missteps and confusion, burdening local officials and slowing the pace of immunizations even as the virus spreads, The New York Times (NYT) on Monday cited state health officials and relevant documents.

"Officials in at least 20 states and jurisdictions have complained about the delivery of the vaccine, called Jynneos. (More than half are led by Democrats, including California, Washington, Connecticut and Michigan, suggesting that their grievances are not politically motivated,)" said the report.

"This is happening everywhere," said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, a nonprofit group that represents state, local and territorial officials. "Our response is completely inefficient and breaking the back of state and local responders."

In previous emergencies, including the 2009 swine flu outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines were delivered to health care providers through a system run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to the report. That system is integrated with state databases that track vaccinations and doses.

But Jynneos is being disbursed from the National Strategic Stockpile by a different government agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, said the report.

"As it stands now, the stockpile is shipping monkeypox vaccine to just five sites in each state, regardless of its size. State officials must distribute the doses, track them manually and enter the data into their databases, none of which would have been necessary under the CDC's system," it added.