JULY 2022:
LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization is convening its emergency committee to consider for the second time within weeks whether the expanding outbreak of monkeypox should be declared a global crisis. Some scientists say the striking differences between the outbreaks in Africa and in developed countries will complicate any coordinated response and possibly deepen existing inequities between the rich and poor. While African officials say they are already treating the continent’s epidemic as an emergency, experts elsewhere say the mild version of monkeypox in Europe and North America makes an emergency declaration unnecessary. Yet while the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries have bought millions of vaccines, none have gone to Africa.
JUNE 2022:
LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization is creating a new vaccine-sharing mechanism to stop the spiraling outbreak of monkeypox in more than 30 countries beyond Africa. The move could result in the U.N. health agency distributing scarce vaccine doses to rich countries that otherwise can afford them. To some health experts, the initiative potentially misses the opportunity to control monkeypox in the African countries where it’s infected people for decades. They say the program might repeat the inequity in vaccine distribution that was seen during the coronavirus pandemic. The mechanism was proposed shortly after Britain, Canada, France, Germany, the U.S. and other countries reported hundreds of monkeypox cases last month (May 2022).
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