CDC releasing some smallpox vaccine doses for monkeypox

[mystery-ak]

 CDC releasing some smallpox vaccine doses for monkeypox
by Joseph Choi - 05/23/22 4:19 PM ET

Officials for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday said the agency is releasing doses of a smallpox vaccine in response to the few recent cases of monkeypox that have been detected in the U.S.

Jennifer McQuiston, CDC’s deputy director for its Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, said in a press briefing that more than a thousand doses of the Jynneos smallpox vaccine are currently available in the U.S., with more doses expected to become available as production ramps up.

Jynneos, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2019, is manufactured by Bavarian Nordic, a biotechnology company headquartered in Denmark.

The vaccines will be designated for people who are most likely to benefit from them, McQuiston said, including those who are known to have had close contact with monkeypox patients, health care workers and people who would be at high risk of developing a severe case of the disease.

The Jynneos vaccine is administered in two 0.5 mL doses four weeks apart.

McQuiston confirmed that there has been a request for the release of Jynneos from the U.S. national stockpile for high-risk contacts and said it was “actively happening right now.”

more
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3498344-cdc-releasing-some-jynneos-smallpox-vaccine-doses-for-monkeypox/

[PeteS in CA]

Jynneos, approved by the FDA in 2019 (and in EuroLand in 2013), is effective for smallpox and monkeypox.

Smallpox was declared eradicated, IIRC, in the 1970s. And smallpox vaccination also ceased being ordinary/normal pediatric practice. However, there are labs around the world that still retained samples of the smallpox virus. This became a subject of concern with the break-up of the Soviet empire and terrorists becoming more prominent, etc. so acquiring stocks of smallpox vaccine became a government priority, and, apparently, a new vaccine was developed, tested, and purchased (the number I've seen was 24 million doses).

Monkeypox seems to be endemic in parts of Africa among some mammals (it was first identified in lab monkeys in 1958), and crosses over to humans who come into contact with those animals. Starting just after the start of the 21st Century, there have been multiple small outbreaks and clusters of cases outside of Africa, all linked to travel (human or exotic animals) to/from several African nations. Many current cases apparently link to a couple of large "Pride" festivals which gays from multiple continents - including Africa - had attended. Whether the virus was transmitted by close contact or close contact is knowledge I'd gladly forgo.