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While monkeypox is much harder to spread than COVID-19, experts warn if the disease spills over into general populations — currently in Europe and North America it is circulating almost exclusively among gay and bisexual men — the need for vaccines could intensify, especially if the virus becomes entrenched in new regions. (Cheng, 7/30)

Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb penned an op-ed in the New York Times published on Saturday arguing that the United States lacks a federal infrastructure capable of dealing with public health emergencies like monkeypox and COVID-19. “Our country’s response to monkeypox ‌‌has been plagued by the same shortcomings we had with Covid-19,” Gottlieb wrote in the op-ed. (Schonfeld, 7/31)

San Francisco health officials are reserving a portion of monkeypox vaccine appointments at the city’s largest public vaccination clinic for residents who have been hit hardest by virus: gay and bisexual men of color, especially from the Latino community. (Ho, 7/29)

Nicholas Rupp, a spokesperson for the Salt Lake County Health Department, said that Salt Lake County has received the majority of monkeypox vaccine doses that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has allocated to Utah for two main reasons: the county is seeing a higher incidence of cases, and it tends to serve more of the “men who have sex with men” (MSM) community than surrounding jurisdictions. (Hufham, 7/30)

Experts at the World Health Organization said this week that they are watching the potential for spread among children “extremely closely.” Already, more than 80 kids across several countries have contracted monkeypox, largely through household contacts, the agency said in a media briefing. (Muller, 7/29)

Since the earliest days of the current global monkeypox outbreak, scientists and public health authorities have been calling for the disease to be renamed, arguing that it has racist overtones and carries a stigma that will hinder efforts to stop its spread. (Branswell, 8/1)