How the US monkeypox response failed to learn COVID’s lessons

Excerpt

The Biden administration’s failed response to the spread of monkeypox has highlighted America’s inability to respond to large-scale disease outbreaks. These problems are bipartisan and were also evident in the Trump administration’s flawed response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Solving them will require bipartisan cooperation.

The United States must fix its public health system or suffer the consequences of the next disease outbreak, which could be deadlier and more difficult to contain.

Treating monkeypox should not have proven as challenging as treating the coronavirus. Monkeypox, after all, was discovered in 1958, and the first human case was recorded in 1970. A vaccine, known as Jynneos, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2019 and is effective against both monkeypox and smallpox.