Gillibrand Calls For Defense Production Act For Monkeypox Vaccine

NEW YORK — United State Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, called on President Joe Biden to invoke the Defense Production Act in order to increase access to monkeypox vaccines.

At a virtual news conference Wednesday, New York's junior senator said there were more than 6,000 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the U.S., including several in children, and New York has emerged as a center of the outbreak.

"Monkeypox is a serious threat to public health, and we need to be doing everything in our power to ensure that vaccines are widely available to those who need them," she said.

"We don't have time to wait," Gillibrand said. "I urge President Biden to immediately invoke the Defense Production Act to ramp up vaccine supply and keep our communities across our state and country safe."

She was joined in the news conference by Dr. Jay Varma, director of the Center for Pandemic Prevention and Response at Weill Cornell Medicine; Dr. Donald Chen, an infectious disease specialist at Westchester Medical Center, and Amanda Babine, executive director of Equality New York.

Chen said Westchester County's health department has provided vaccine doses to Westchester Medical Center and other sites around the county.

"We are offering safe and convenient monkeypox vaccinations to eligible community members as a drive-thru service by appointment only," he said.

Varma said monkeypox represents an acute threat to the health of Americans.

"While the outbreak is almost exclusively impacting gay men and their sexual health networks right now," he said, "there is no biological reason for it to stay that way."

Vaccination is one of the most important ways that we can prevent infections," Varma said, "but it only works if there are vaccines available."

Babine said the federal government needs to prioritize prevention and get more vaccines to New Yorkers.

"Right now, we are in a crucial place and need to act fast to stop the spread of monkeypox," she said.

The letter to the president was also signed by Democratic Senators Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico.

The full text of the letter is available here.