Matt Haney

San Francisco Lawmakers Call Out Government for ‘Public Health Failure' on Monkeypox

The move comes as communities in the Bay Area that are most affected by the outbreak are racing to find appointments for a limited supply of vaccines

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Two state lawmakers from San Francisco are blasting the federal government for what they said is a slow response to the monkeypox outbreak.

The move comes as communities in the Bay Area that are most affected by the outbreak are racing to find appointments for a limited supply of vaccines.

"It's just very sad that it doesn't seem like they're ramping up the vaccine," San Francisco resident Christopher Vasquez said. "Not only production, but distribution in a way that's in line with how fast this epidemic is growing."

Vasquez is one of thousands attendees at a party during pride weekend in San Francisco who organizers said may have been exposed to monkeypox after someone there tested positive.

San Francisco's Department of Public Health received 2,300 doses of the vaccine. But local clinics said that is not nearly enough for what they expect will be a much higher demand.

State Sen. Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Matt Haney in response to the vaccine shortage released a joint statement Friday calling out the federal government for a lagging response to monkeypox.

"The federal government has once again had a public health failure, this time by failing to order enough vaccine doses to prepare for this foreseeable outbreak," the statement said.

Los Angeles-based actor Matt Ford is also among those trying to warn people about the spread of monkeypox. He got monkeypox and has now taken to TikTok to describe his infection.

"It was extremely painful to the point where I could not sleep," Ford said in a TikTok video. "I had to be prescribed narcotic pain killers to be able to even go to sleep and the ones I was prescribed barely cut it at that."

Symptoms take 7-14 days to show, but can take up to 21 days to show

Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, said there is an effective drug to treat people who have monkeypox.

"Just last weekend we treated a couple of patients at UCSF with severe disease and it's going really well," Chin-Hong said. "The patients are getting better really quickly."

The doctor adds that drug, tecovirimat, is only approved for limited use and can only be prescribed in specific cases.

San Francisco reports 40 confirmed or suspected cases of monkeypox, which is more than double the amount of cases last week.

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