Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
As Cases Drop, Mpox Public Emergency Will End In February
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it would not renew mpox, the virus formerly known as monkeypox, as a public health emergency after January 31, 2023, following a drop in cases. (Ahn, 12/3)
鈥淕iven the low number of cases today, HHS does not expect that it needs to renew the emergency declaration when it ends on January 31, 2023,鈥 HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. 鈥淏ut we won鈥檛 take our foot off the gas 鈥 we will continue to monitor the case trends closely and encourage all at-risk individuals to get a free vaccine.鈥 (Nirappil, 12/2)
In other mpox updates 鈥
"The outbreak has been contained, but it's not 'mission accomplished' because the virus is still here," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at聽Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.聽(Weintraub, 12/3)
In a recent study posted to the bioRxiv* server, researchers developed a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology-based vaccine candidate against the monkeypox virus (MPXV) and evaluated its immunogenicity in animal models. (Mathur, 12/5)
