San Francisco residents voiced their concerns at Thursday’s board of supervisors meeting over the city’s response to the monkeypox outbreak.
San Francisco residents voiced their concerns at Thursday's board of supervisors meeting over the city's response to the monkeypox outbreak.
This comes as monkeypox cases in San Francisco and the Bay Area continue to rise, hitting the LGBTQ community hard.
Dr. Stephanie Cohen of the San Francisco Department of Public Health said the city has received less than 8,000 doses, despite requesting 35,000 doses. Cohen said that the city is now prioritizing first doses until the supply improves.
“It seems there are failures at multiple levels that need to be dissected because we should have had a vaccine out to states in large quantities at the beginning of June,” she said.
Due to the shortage, people will likely be waiting longer than they should for second doses and the news that isn’t going over well for some.
“It is unforgivable to find out that I don’t have a second appointment because of this hearing,” said Tom Temprano of Equality California.
In Contra Costa County, less than 1,000 doses have arrived so far, which is frustrating for the community and county leaders.
“We can only be successful to fight this if we have a large supply of doses and act quickly and so, we’re working with the state to get us those doses,” said John Gioia of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.
But San Francisco continues to lead the way in confirmed monkeypox cases with 141 so far.
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