Top Democrats vying to represent the heartland of the Big Apple’s LGBTQ community in Congress blasted the Biden administration Friday for letting the bureaucracy block the importation of 1 million doses of the much-needed monkeypox vaccine.
The comments came hours after The Post highlighted how the Food and Drug Administration’s failure to inspect the Danish plant and its subsequent refusal to accept inspections carried out by European regulators had left the plans in limbo.
“It is now July and this is a vaccine that has been on the market and has been approved since 2019, which makes the FDA’s poor vaccine procurement planning even more insane and outrageous,” former Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.
The former city manager is among a half-dozen Democrats vying to represent the newly created 10th Congressional District, which spans large swathes of brownstone Brooklyn and lower Manhattan — including the West Village, which is the historic center of homosexual community in the five municipalities.
The outrage was quickly joined by Lower East Side councilwoman Carlina Rivera, who called on the White House to either immediately order an FDA inspection or accept sign-offs from European regulators.
“We have $2 billion worth of US-funded vaccines in a warehouse in Europe, and I’m calling on the FDA to conduct an immediate inspection or grant one-time reciprocity to the EU’s comprehensive inspections so that we can get these vaccines to the people who want them as as soon as possible,” the two-term MP said in a statement.
Lower East Side Councilwoman Carlina Rivera asked Biden to either immediately order an FDA inspection or accept the signatures from European regulators. William Farrington
Another candidate, Daniel Goldman — a lawyer and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune who is best known for directing the first impeachment hearings for then-President Donald Trump — also joined the growing chorus of outrage.
“In a public health situation of this seriousness, the FDA should be able to rely on the respected EU regulatory system,” he said. “We need to learn our lesson from COVID and do everything we can to get ahead of monkeypox before it becomes an epidemic.”
Public health activists in New York City revealed the existence of the millions of ready-made doses in a letter they sent to the White House on June 28 demanding that the FDA take action, which they said was ignored.
President Biden grilled by New York Democrats over smallpox vaccines. AFP via Getty Images
The White House has defended the administration’s efforts to combat the monkeypox outbreak, while rejecting calls to allow the use of European inspections.
“The FDA is the gold standard and has an obligation to ensure that only products that meet its standards for the American people, including its vaccines, are available here,” said a spokesman, who referred questions about the details to the FDA.
An FDA spokeswoman said it was “expediting” the review, but did not say whether it had begun or was complete — or, if it was not yet underway, provided details about when it might begin or how long it would take.
“This is a test case for how the U.S. responds to a new disease threat,” said Dr. Jay Varma, an infectious disease expert who helped oversee New York’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The US was as prepared as it could be. He has a test, he has a vaccine, and he has a stockpile of it. And yet, we continue to see delays in the ability of the federal bureaucracy to get all those things that the taxpayer has paid for to the people who need them most,” he added. “If it was a smallpox bioterrorist attack, would we let the bureaucracy stand for the shots to be called? This is a real national security issue.”
Daniel Goldman joined the chorus of New York Democrats in expressing President Biden’s mishap over the monkeypox vaccine. Ron Sachs – CNP
The growing anger over the meager doses came as the number of monkeypox cases continued to rise, reaching a total of 160 on Friday. That’s 44 percent of the 111 reported Tuesday — and nearly double the 87 reported at this time last week.
And it comes as the local and federal response continues to be hit by a national shortage of the two-dose JYNNEOS vaccine, testing problems and computer problems at the city’s Health Department vendor that manages vaccination appointments.
The shortage is such that New York City — home to 8.8 million people — has received just 7,000 doses of the vaccine so far and is delaying scheduling second shots in an effort to expand the number of residents who can get partial protection from the first. dose.
Meanwhile, testing remains limited even as private labs come online because the only approved procedure requires patients to have lesions or rashes that can be swabbed, limiting testing to advanced cases.
Supply shortages and testing problems, in turn, have made the vaccine the only response authorities can provide – but the company DOHMH chose to carry out the operation, MedRite, saw its computer system suffer from a series of serious injuries.
The company has a $36 million contract with DOHMH that was originally for the provision of services related to the COVID vaccination campaign.
The agency declined Friday to provide a copy of the contract for review and said it could only be obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, a process that can take years.
Monkey pox is a disease spread primarily through skin-to-skin contact that can cause fever, flu-like symptoms, and is often characterized by painful lesions or rashes.
“Anyone can contract and spread monkeypox,” the DOHMH wrote in its most recent public guidance.
He added: “The current outbreaks are spreading mainly in the social networks of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, so this community is currently at greater risk of exposure.”
Public health officials have gone to great lengths to emphasize that the virus can spread just as easily among heterosexuals as among gay men, among whom many of the early cases clustered.
Many of these early cases were traced to parties, clubs, or other activities in Europe aimed at gay men—especially younger men—where groping and other intimate encounters are common and often encouraged.
