Mayor Adams acknowledges need for more NYC monkeypox vaccine sites

A day after Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) criticized the federal government for its response to the recent monkeypox outbreak, Mayor Adams acknowledged that the city also needs to do more to make vaccines for the disease more accessible.

Adams was responding to criticisms from community leaders who appeared Monday with Torres and who pointed out that there’s only one vaccination site in the city for the illness, which is similar to smallpox and results in painful rashes, achiness and exhaustion.

“We need to listen to them. Accessibility is important,” Adams said. “We hadn’t heard that. That wasn’t communicated directly to us, but I will speak to the commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene because we have to have accessibility.”

A day earlier, Torres focused his ire on the federal government, which he accused of mounting a lethargic response to the disease.

[ EXPLAINER: What is monkeypox and should New Yorkers be worried? ]

Health officials have stressed that monkeypox can infect anyone; In the U.S., nearly all cases are men, and the vast majority had same-sex encounters, according to the CDC.

Torres, a Bronx Democrat who’s gay, called for the inspector general overseeing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to review what he called the “failed federal response.”

“The US has a long and ugly history of ignoring the public health needs of the LGBTQ community,” Torres said in a letter to Christi Grimm, the inspector general, and Gene Dodaro, the U.S. comptroller general. “For many in the community, history is repeating itself.”

This month, millions of American-owned vaccine doses have sat in Denmark because of bureaucratic snafus. That condition has persisted despite growing anxiety over the painful but rarely fatal disease.

[ U.S. has 17M monkeypox vaccine doses stuck in Denmark as NYC scrambles to get shots into arms: ‘Make the vaccine available to everyone’ ]

Adams touched on that Tuesday, noting that the city has been fighting to get its share of vaccine doses.

“Twenty-five percent of the cases are here in New York. We were getting almost 50 percent of the proportionate level of vaccines,” he said. “But I’m going to speak with the commissioner this afternoon and find out where are all of our sites. I know we are big on making sure that it’s accessible.”