U.S. admits COVID-19 response mistakes, but repeats them over monkeypox: NBC

NEW YORK, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky has conceded that her agency "did not reliably meet expectations" in its "big moment" when it came to confronting the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, reported NBC on Thursday.

In addition to this welcome admission, she also prioritized quicker data-sharing and stronger messaging that the public can readily relate to, according to the report.

"But the bungled monkeypox response underscores just how vast the gap is between the CDC's aspirations and its current reality," said the report, noting that the United States has had to declare the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency to emphasize the growing risk to Americans.

The mistakes have spanned the entire process from diagnosing monkeypox to treating it. Flawed testing criteria, limited testing availability and processing delays have not only let the virus run amok, but have also led to an underestimation of the outbreak's true scale, said the report.

Vaccines have been misallocated and grievously limited due to 20 million doses that expired while sitting in the Strategic National Stockpile, ordering delays and the Food and Drug Administration's failure to inspect and approve Bavarian Nordic's new facility in Denmark, where the majority of the 1.4 million shots ordered by the United States in early 2020 resided, before monkeypox cases took off, it added.