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 | | The New York Times |
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 | | Protesters in Manhattan on July 21 demanded a stronger government response to the spread of monkeypox.Andrew Seng for The New York Times |
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The World Health Organization took the extraordinary step over the weekend of declaring monkeypox a "public health emergency of international concern," a designation currently used to describe only two other diseases, Covid-19 and polio. |
Dr. Boghuma Titanji, an infectious diseases physician at Emory University in Atlanta, said the declaration was "better late than never," but the delay meant that there was an important lack of coordination. |
"There is almost capitulation that we cannot stop the monkeypox virus from establishing itself in a more permanent way," she said. |
Experts have argued that the U.S. response to the monkeypox outbreak has also been mismanaged, repeating some of the initial missteps the country made in the early days of the Covid outbreak. |
Even then, the vaccines were flown piecemeal, arriving over the span of a couple weeks. Many didn't arrive until July, more than six weeks after the first case was identified in New York City. |
The government was slow to deploy the vaccines, activists say, partly because of concerns about depleting the nation's bioterrorism defenses. (The vaccine against monkeypox was developed and stockpiled for use against smallpox.) |
The outbreak has galvanized many in the L.G.B.T. community, who have argued that monkeypox has not received the attention it deserves, mirroring the early days of the H.I.V. epidemic. |
"The U.S. government intentionally de-prioritized gay men's health in the midst of an out-of-control outbreak because of a potential bioterrorist threat that does not currently exist," said James Krellenstein, a gay health activist based in Brooklyn. |
By holding back the doses early on, the U.S. may have missed the opportunity to contain or slow the largest monkeypox outbreak in the country. Now, monkeypox has become widespread enough in New York City that epidemiologists doubt it can be contained anytime soon. |
 | | Public school students in Georgia waited for coronavirus tests in January.Dustin Chambers for The New York Times |
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States lift Covid emergency declarations |
While the W.H.O. ramps up the global response to monkeypox, states are moving in the opposite direction on Covid, despite a surge in cases and hospitalizations driven by the highly contagious BA.5 variant. |
In March 2020, all 50 states and the District of Columbia declared public health emergencies in response to the pandemic, which allowed them to lift limits on hospital capacity, expand access to telehealth services and make preparations in case the National Guard was needed. |
But today, fewer than a dozen states have emergency declarations in place. As Americans adjust to living with the virus, these declarations are becoming harder for politicians to justify. Public health emergencies are by definition a temporary solution to states' health care problems, and the pandemic created an opportunity to reassess their function, according to one expert. |
"The emergency declarations really need to be short term," said Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association. "The fact that they're going away is good." |
Earlier this month, the Biden administration extended the federal coronavirus public health emergency, which was first set in January 2020, through mid-October. The designation allows millions of low-income Americans expanded access to Medicaid coverage and grants states access to pandemic-related funds, among other benefits. |
Your experience with pandemic economics |
The pandemic has drastically changed the global economy, affecting things such as the price and availability of goods and how people view their relationship to employers. |
This week, we're checking in with readers about their financial circumstances, and how they feel about the future. We're asking: How has the pandemic changed your economic situation? What, if anything, are you doing to adjust for the future? |
What else we're following |
As my spouse and I are both high risk for serious disease, we continue to practice strict social distancing. It took a while, but I am now accustomed to the hollow feeling of isolation. We have wonderful friends who meet with us from a distance and do not make us feel odd for masking outside. But we miss travel, restaurants, movies, art shows, theater and live music. Recently, we attended an outdoor Shakespeare performance. The following day, I woke up feeling an unfamiliar sensation. I attacked my morning work zestfully and creatively. It wasn't until midafternoon that realized I could attribute the happiness I was feeling to the energy of live theater, the pleasures of people-watching and the joy of being somewhere other than my house. — Leah Shafer, Interlaken, N.Y. |
Let us know how you're dealing with the pandemic. Send us a response here, and we may feature it in an upcoming newsletter. |
| Thanks for reading. I'll be back Wednesday — Jonathan |
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