Actual number of cases are way higher than what's being reported due to lack of testing
Demand for monkeypox vaccine rises with case counts, but supply remains low
(CNN)The number of monkeypox vaccine doses distributed across the United States has more than tripled since last week, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, but supply falls far short of demand -- and short of the levels that experts say will be needed to control the outbreak.
Michael Austin Nicolo, a bartender in New York City, is one of more than a thousand people in the US who have been diagnosed with the virus this year. He's also one of many more who have struggled to find an available vaccine.
"I just first heard about monkeypox like everybody else, through the news, social media, the grapevine, and how it was becoming something we need to be worried about and how it was predominantly affecting gay men or men who have sex with men," Nicolo said.
It was enough to send him in search of more information on how to protect himself.
"At the time, there was little resources on finding the vaccine," he said.
"I had two friends reach out with links, and we clicked on them, and they are already completely like -- they were gone immediately. There was no access to anything," he said.
"We just kind of kept an eye on the links and kept on living our lives. And then after Pride weekend is when I started to show symptoms of it -- and that was too late."
Where vaccines are going
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 1.5 million men who have sex with men are eligible for the monkeypox vaccine. Although monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease, it spreads through skin-to-skin contact and in this outbreak, has mostly been spreading among men who have sex with men.
More than 132,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine -- a two-dose regimen manufactured by Bavarian Nordic -- have been pulled from the national strategic stockpile and distributed nationwide, according to
HHS data, but it hasn't been enough to meet demand.
"We got an allotment of 200 vaccines, and the appointments for that went in about an hour and a half," said Dr. David Holland, chief clinical officer of the Fulton County, Georgia, Board of Health.
The CDC says decisions about how to allocate the limited vaccine supply are based equally on the number of cases and the population at risk in a specific area.
The Jynneos vaccine is available now for people at high risk of exposure: those who have been identified as close contacts of someone who has been diagnosed with monkeypox, those who have had sex with a partner diagnosed with monkeypox within the past 14 days, and those who have had multiple sex partners in the past 14 days in an area with monkeypox spread,
according to the CDC.
As more vaccines become available, the agency will continue to evaluate the distribution strategy, a spokesperson said.
The District of Columbia has received the most vaccines per capita, by far, and the city has many more confirmed cases per capita than any state.
But as of Wednesday, two states with confirmed cases -- New Mexico and South Dakota -- have yet to receive any doses.
After DC, New York has received the most vaccine doses per capita: more than three times the US average. About three-quarters of the state's supply went to New York City.
In a letter on Tuesday, New York Mayor Eric Adams urged the Biden administration to increase the vaccine allocation, calling his city an "epicenter" of the virus in the US.
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Demand for monkeypox vaccine rises with case counts, but supply remains low - CNN