One day in August, Michael Stola, a San Francisco man, came outside the city hall building and joined others in calling on the government to actively fight the monkeypox epidemic. Stora had previously been diagnosed with COVID-19, but a few days later, he found a monkeypox rash on his body, which made him particularly miserable. Not just Stola, but thousands of Americans today are suffering from both COVID-19 and monkeypox viruses.
On August 22, local time, Wyoming reported the first case of monkeypox infection. So far, in less than three months, all 50 states in the United States have "fallen", and the number of confirmed cases of monkeypox has exceeded 15,000, ranking first in the world. US public opinion pointed out that from the new crown to monkeypox, the US government has failed to fight the epidemic one after another.
Unlike the coronavirus, the monkeypox virus was discovered in 1958 and spread to humans in 1970. Vaccines and treatments for monkeypox already exist. In 2003, there was also an outbreak of monkeypox in the United States, and there was relevant experience in coping. Therefore, at the beginning of this monkeypox outbreak, people thought that the US government could "kill the micro-time" through timely detection and treatment, but the result became a "preventable mistake". Jon Andrews, an associate professor at the Milken Institute at George Washington University, said that after more than five waves of COVID-19, "every time it seems like starting from scratch, every time it's caught off guard."
In a panic, nearly 10,000 places on the website of the United States to schedule monkeypox vaccination were snatched up in a matter of minutes. Queues at the entrance of hospitals often line up for half a day or even a few days, and a large number of Americans have to go to neighboring Canada to get vaccinated. New Yorkers say vaccinating is like "winning the lottery." Baltimore residents reported that they called the monkeypox vaccine hotline every 15 minutes or even every 5 minutes, but finally opened it but were asked to wait for screening. Due to system chaos, they can't even find accurate booking information.
Large numbers of people in the United States line up at vaccination sites, waiting to be vaccinated against monkeypox.
The monkeypox vaccine is "hard to find" because the US government's strategic reserves are pitifully small. The US "Politics" quoted sources as reporting that the US government should have stockpiled about 120 million doses of monkeypox vaccine, but only 20 million doses were stockpiled before 2019, citing insufficient funding. The New York Times revealed that at the beginning of the outbreak, the United States even had "only 2400 doses of vaccine available." U.S. officials have been demanding adequate funding and reserves from Congress, but they have "never been satisfied." The US media criticized that the long-term disregard of the medical and health system by US politicians has led to uncontrollable developments.
In addition, the U.S. government's performance in the collection and testing of outbreak data, vaccine distribution and treatment, is equally disappointing.
Gottlieb, the former director of the Food and Drug Administration, said the CDC and other health officials have been reluctant to expand the scope of testing, requiring those who participate in the test to meet a series of conditions. It wasn't until late June that the U.S. government authorized commercial laboratories to join the testing, then spent more than a month increasing weekly testing capacity from thousands to tens of thousands. But public opinion believes that it is too late.
Meanwhile, ROCHELLE Valensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that as of early August, the CDC had only half of the details of confirmed cases because it could not force states to provide adequate reports. With inadequate testing capacity and poor information between local and federal governments, the actual number of monkeypox cases in the United States may be much higher than official statistics.
The distribution of vaccines by the U.S. federal government is also chaotic. A batch of 5,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine, which was supposed to be shipped to Florida, was shipped to Oklahoma, and it took several states to reach its destination; Another batch of vaccines disappeared unprovoked in transit in Minnesota and were eventually declared "scrapped"...
Valenkis recently admitted that he made some "very serious and well-known mistakes" in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the face of monkeypox epidemics, why not? The New York Times criticized that "the long-standing weaknesses of the U.S. public health system have made the virus entrenched."
Of course, the U.S. government has also come up with some remedies. For example, Don O'Connell, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said nearly 7 million doses of monkeypox vaccine had been ordered in the United States, but by mid-July, only 372,000 doses had arrived, with millions of other doses estimated to arrive next year. Can distant water quench near thirst?
Incredibly, in response to the vaccine shortage, the US government invented a new injection method called "one by five", that is, to divide the monkeypox vaccine into 5 doses and change the subcutaneous injection to intradermal injection to "expand coverage". This practice has aroused great doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Medical staff complained that this new "one-to-five" injection method is difficult to do in operation.
On May 18, the Massachusetts Health Department reported the first confirmed case of monkeypox in the United States this year, saying it would not pose a threat to public health. This is reminiscent of the judgment of American politicians that the new crown is a "big flu".
As the monkeypox epidemic spread, infectious disease experts and public health advocates in the United States have repeatedly issued warnings. It wasn't until early August, when monkeypox cases rose more than 10-fold from a month earlier, that the U.S. government listed the monkeypox outbreak as a public health emergency. Is this the same as the U.S. response to COVID-19?
In addition, around whether to allocate funds to the health department and whether to declare the monkeypox epidemic a public health emergency, the two parties in the United States have debated for a long time, delaying the precious time to respond to the epidemic, and finally paying the bill is ordinary people.
In mid-August, the world detected the first case of "human-to-dog" monkeypox. The U.S. media said that the U.S. government may have missed the window of time to control the monkeypox epidemic.
In recent days, a number of MEDIA outlets in the United States have published articles saying that the degree of impact on minorities in the United States in the epidemic is completely underestimated. The New York Times notes that of the monkeypox vaccines already distributed in New York City, the white population is vaccinated with 46 percent, far higher than African-Americans and Hispanics. According to data previously released by the Colorado Department of Health, less than 15 percent of the monkeypox vaccine is given to African-Americans or Hispanics, and they make up more than 25 percent of the state's population.
At the same time, African-Americans and Hispanics are also more likely to be infected with monkeypox outbreaks. In Georgia, African-Americans make up only one-third of the state's population, but the number of infected cases is as high as 82 percent of the state's total number of cases, The Political Newspaper reported. In North Carolina, African-Americans make up only one-fifth of the state's population, but the number of cases exceeds 70 percent of the state's total number of cases. There are also states that do not disclose or refuse to disclose data on different ethnic groups. Greg Gonzafers, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health, said the U.S. was "building a caste system" when it came to deciding "who can get what they need to deal with monkeypox."
And in the three months since the monkeypox epidemic spread, US President Biden has completed his trip to Asia and the Middle East, and is struggling for gun control, blaming for inflation, and providing weapons for Ukraine... The latest poll shows that nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the U.S. is moving in the wrong direction, with 48 percent of voters holding "some sort of negative" or "very negative" sentiment toward Biden.
From COVID-19 to monkeypox, none of the 50 states in the United States have been spared. The U.S. government, which is busy with midterm elections and party strife, wonders if it has time to consider the safety of the people? Where will American-style democracy and human rights be placed?
Column Editor-in-Chief: Qin Hong Text Editor: Li Linwei Title Image Source: Visual China Picture Editor: Su Wei
Source: Author: CCTV News