One day in August, Michael stora, a San Francisco man, came to the city government building to join others in calling on the government to actively combat the monkeypox epidemic. Stora was diagnosed with COVID-19 before, but a few days later, he found that he had monkeypox rash, which made him particularly painful. It's not just stora. Thousands of Americans are suffering from covid-19 and monkeypox.
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 been "occupied", and the confirmed cases of monkeypox have exceeded 15000, ranking first in the world. American public opinion pointed out that from covid-19 to monkeypox, the US government has failed to fight the epidemic one after another.
Unlike novel coronavirus, monkeypox virus was discovered in1958 and spread to humans in1970. Vaccines and treatments for monkeypox already exist. In 2003, there was an outbreak of monkeypox in the United States, and there was relevant response experience. Therefore, at the beginning of this outbreak of monkeypox, people thought that the US government could "nip it in the bud" through timely detection and treatment, but the result turned out to be "a mistake that could have been prevented". Jon Andrews, an associate professor at the Milken Institute of George Washington University, said that after more than five waves of COVID-19, "every time it seems to start from scratch, and every time it is unprepared.".
In a panic, nearly 10000 places on the website of the United States to make an appointment for monkeypox vaccination were robbed within a few minutes. The queue at the hospital gate often lasts for half a day or even several days, and a large number of Americans have to go to neighboring Canada to get vaccinated. New Yorkers say that vaccination is like winning a lottery. Baltimore citizens reported that they called the hotline for monkeypox vaccination every 15 minutes or even every 5 minutes, but they were asked to wait for screening. Due to the confusion of the system, they can not even find accurate reservation information.
A large number of people in the United States queued up at vaccination points to receive monkeypox vaccine.
Monkeypox vaccine is hard to get because the US government's strategic reserves are pitifully small. The US "politico" reported that the US government should have reserved about 120 million doses of monkeypox vaccine, but only 20 million doses were reserved before 2019, citing insufficient funds. The New York Times revealed that at the beginning of the outbreak, the United States even had "only 2400 doses of vaccine available". Relevant US officials have been asking Congress to provide sufficient funds and reserves, but they have never been satisfied. The US media criticized that the long-term neglect of the health care system by US politicians has led to the situation getting out of hand.
In addition, the US government's performance in the collection and testing of epidemic data, vaccine distribution and treatment was also disappointing.
Former director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Gottlieb said that the CDC and other health officials have been reluctant to expand the scope of testing, requiring that people participating in testing must meet a series of conditions. It was not until late June that the US government authorized commercial laboratories to participate in testing, and then it took more than a month to increase the weekly testing capacity from several thousand to tens of thousands. However, public opinion believes that it is too late.
At the same time, Rochelle valensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and prevention, said that as of the beginning of August, the Centers for Disease Control and prevention only had the details of half of the confirmed cases because they could not force the States to provide sufficient reports. With insufficient detection capacity and poor information between the local and federal governments, the actual number of monkeypox cases in the United States may be much higher than the official statistics.
The distribution of vaccines by the federal government of the United States is also very chaotic. A batch of 5000 doses of monkeypox vaccine that should have been shipped to Florida was transported to Oklahoma, and it took several States to reach the destination; Another batch of vaccines disappeared during transportation in Minnesota for no reason and were finally declared "scrapped"
Valenkis recently admitted that he made some "very serious and well-known mistakes" in responding to the COVID-19 epidemic. In the face of the monkeypox epidemic, isn't it? The New York Times criticized that "the long-standing weaknesses of the US public health system have made the virus deeply rooted".
Of course, the US government has also come up with some remedial measures. For example, don O'Connell, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of health and human services, said that the United States had ordered nearly 7 million doses of monkeypox vaccine, but by mid July, only 372000 doses had arrived, and the other several million doses were estimated to arrive next year. Can distant water quench near thirst?
It is inconceivable that, in order to cope with the shortage of vaccines, the US government has invented the so-called "one to five" injection method, that is, to divide one dose of monkeypox vaccine into five doses, and change subcutaneous injection into intradermal injection to "expand coverage". This approach has aroused great doubts about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. Medical personnel complain that this new injection method of "one to five" is difficult to achieve in operation.
On May 18, when the Massachusetts Health Department reported the first confirmed case of monkeypox in the United States this year, it said that it would not pose a threat to public health. This can not help but remind people of the judgment of us politicians that covid-19 was "pandemic influenza".
With the spread of monkeypox, American infectious disease experts and public health advocates have repeatedly issued warnings. It was not until early August, when the number of monkeypox cases increased more than 10 times compared with a month ago, that the US government listed the monkeypox epidemic as a public health emergency. Is this the same as the US response to the COVID-19 epidemic?
In addition, the two parties in the United States debated for a long time about whether to allocate funds to the health department and whether to declare the monkeypox epidemic as a public health emergency, which delayed the precious time to deal with the epidemic. The ordinary people ultimately paid the bill.
In mid August, the world's first case of "human to dog" monkeypox was found. US media said that the US government may have missed the time window to control the monkeypox epidemic.
Over the past few days, many US media have published articles saying that the impact of the epidemic on ethnic minorities in the United States has been completely underestimated. The New York Times pointed out that among the monkeypox vaccines distributed in New York City, the white population had received 46% of the vaccines, which was far higher than that of African Americans and Latinos. According to the data previously released by the Colorado Health Department, less than 15% of the monkeypox vaccine has been vaccinated to African Americans or Latinos, who account for more than 25% of the state's population.
At the same time, the proportion of African Americans and Latinos infected with monkeypox is also higher. According to the report of the US political newspaper, in Georgia, African Americans only account for one-third of the state's population, but the number of infected cases is as high as 82% of the total number of cases in the state. In North Carolina, African Americans account for only one fifth of the state's population, but the number of cases exceeds 70% of the state's total. There are also states that do not disclose or refuse to disclose data on different ethnic groups. Greg gonsavus, an epidemiologist at Yale University's School of public health, said that the United States was "establishing a caste system" in deciding "who can get what it needs to deal with monkeypox.".
In the three months since the monkeypox epidemic spread, US President Biden has completed his Asian and Middle East visits, and is struggling with gun control, blaming inflation and providing weapons for Ukraine... The latest poll shows that nearly three quarters of Americans believe that the United States is moving in the wrong direction, and 48% of voters have "some negative" or "very negative" feelings toward Biden.
From covid-19 to monkeypox, none of the 50 states in the United States has been spared. The US government, which is busy with the mid-term elections and party struggles, does not know whether it has time to consider the safety of the people? Where will American democracy and human rights go?