California declares state of emergency over monkeypox
California has declared a a state of emergency over monkeypox, becoming the second state in three days to do so as US authorities speed up efforts to combat the outbreak.
The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, said Monday’s declaration would help the state coordinate a government-wide response, seek more vaccines and lead outreach and education efforts on where people can get treatment and vaccines.
California, the nation’s most populous state, follows in the footsteps of similar declarations issued by New York and San Francisco.
There are currently more than 5,800 cases of monkeypox in the US, according to the CDC, and public health agencies, left battered by the Covid-19 pandemic, have faced criticism for being too slow to act. The World Health Organization recently declared monkeypox a global health emergency.
The outbreak has far has been disproportionately affected gay and bisexual men and reopened old traumas for those who lived through the HIV/Aids crisis. “It doesn’t escape me that we’re once again in a moment where there’s a lack of urgency when a public health crisis is impacting cis and trans men as well as non-binary folks within the same social and sexual networks,” Tyler TerMeer, the CEO of the San Francisco Aids foundation, recently told the Guardian.
Newsom’s proclamation allows emergency medical personnel to administer monkeypox vaccines that are approved by the federal government. The state said it was also building on the steps developed during the coronavirus pandemic to set up vaccination clinics and make sure there is outreach to vulnerable populations in cooperation with local and communitybased organizations.
“We’ll continue to work with the federal government to secure more vaccines, raise awareness about reducing risk, and stand with the LGBTQ community fighting stigmatization,” Newsom said in a statement announcing his declaration.
“The monkeypox outbreak is an emergency, and we need to use every tool we have to control it,” said Scott Wiener, a Democratic state senator from San Francisco, who hailed the governor’s decision.