(C) Florida Phoenix This story was originally published by Florida Phoenix and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Democrats, LGBTQ+ groups ask Biden administration to boost monkeypox aid [1] ['Issac Morgan', 'More From Author', '- July'] Date: 2022-07-22 Democratic U.S. House members from states including Florida are urging the Biden administration to immediately declare monkeypox a public health emergency and make vaccines more available as cases continue to climb across the nation. In a letter this week, U.S. Reps. Mondaire Jones and Jerrold Nadler of New York asked President Joe Biden to “act with urgency to ensure that roughly one million ready-to-administer doses of Jynneos vaccine arrive in the United States within the next week.” Also signing were Florida lawmakers Frederica Wilson, Darren Soto, and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. “We also encourage the administration to declare a public health emergency and use those authorities to accelerate the federal response,” the letter states. “And that there is a plan, overseen by a dedicated White House liaison, to coordinate a federal strategy to administer them as quickly as possible,” the letter says. Last week, the Biden administration announced that it would immediately boost availability of the Jynneos vaccine. An official from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that 131,000 doses would be available for states to order as early as Monday. New York has seen the most U.S. cases of monkeypox, a rare disease that can cause a characteristic rash and other symptoms. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New York had reported 830 cases as of Friday afternoon. Other states with the rising infections include California (356), Illinois (230), and Florida (226), CDC data show. Florida is seeing more cases than the CDC figures suggest, according to a report from the Florida Department of Health. State data show a total of 247 cases across 16 counties, with South Florida reporting the most infections. Broward County has identified 124 cases and Miami-Dade County has 65. New name Meanwhile, a coalition of national LGBTQ+ groups this week sent a letter to the CDC “to demand expanding testing, vaccine access,” and to rename monkeypox to “hMPXV” to reduce stigma. The groups include Equality California, the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, according to a press release. “The undersigned organizations also request an immediate change to the name of this poxvirus, and support the World Health Organization’s intention to rename Monkeypox to ‘hMPXV’ amidst international public calls by medical professionals and scientists,” the letter states. “The current global strain has no clear link to West Africa, where the virus typically originates, and it acts differently than the West Africa strain. Additionally, the current nomenclature and association to West Africa are stigmatizing and could lead to discrimination.” WHO is assessing whether to declare the virus as a public health emergency but the organization has said it will rename monkeypox. [END] --- [1] Url: https://floridaphoenix.com/2022/07/22/democrats-lgbtq-groups-ask-biden-administration-to-boost-monkeypox-aid/ Published and (C) by Florida Phoenix Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/floridaphoenix/