California will receive 10,000 monkeypox shots from the federal stockpile soon.
All in all, it seems like the worst of SF’s monkeypox outbreak is behind us. Since August 9th, the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) has seen a downward trend in MPX — the newly adopted name for “monkeypox” by health organizations to help bypass stigma and prejudice around the zoonotic disease — due to increased vaccine availability and public awareness around the disease. San Francisco also now allows second-dose vaccine appointments for anyone 28 days past their initial vaccination or those with compromised immune systems.
Good news! The @WhiteHouse, @CDCGov, and @HHSGov have approved an additional 10k MPX vaccine doses for California to help ensure that San Francisco residents and guests will be able to access vaccines during the weeks surrounding the Folsom Street Fair and Castro Street Fair. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/rDjmX4BMEx
— SFDPH (@SF_DPH) September 8, 2022
(Anecdotally, the hours-long wait times at Zuckerberg SF General’s vaccine clinic that became Twitter fodder are long gone. About three weeks ago, my first MPX dose took seventeen minutes to complete… from walking up to the sign-up area to leaving with a small bump on my forearm at the transdermal injection site.)
As San Francisco gears up for the Folsom Street and Castro Street fairs, it comes with a massive sigh of relief to learn that more MPX vaccine units are coming to the city.
“The [White House], [Center for Disease Control], and [U.S. Department of Health & Human Services], have approved an additional 10k MPX vaccine doses for California to help ensure that San Francisco residents and guests will be able to access vaccines during the weeks surrounding the Folsom Street Fair and Castro Street Fair,” reads a tweet from SFPDH. “
It’s unclear at the moment how many of those units will be allocated for San Francisco; the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is responsible for assessing need and distributing its share of MPX vaccines to counties; CDPH has routinely given thousands of units of the two-dose JYNNEOS vaccine to SF, which must now, per the FDA must be injected transdermally — demanding only a fifth of vaccine amount traditionally used in intramuscular injections.
For context: The most recent allotment from CDPH gave San Francisco 1,600 units of the MPX vaccine. But, because of the transdermal technique currently used to inoculate patients, SFDPH could stretch that allocation to serve 8,000 vaccine appointments.
That’s incredible.
SFDPH is working closely with our community and health system partners on outreach, engagement and providing low barrier access to these vaccines. We will update the community about more opportunities to access vaccines in advance of these events. 3/3
— SFDPH (@SF_DPH) September 8, 2022
“SFDPH is working closely with our community and health system partners on outreach, engagement, and providing low barrier access to these vaccines,” reads the last post in a three-tweet thread from the City health department. “We will update the community about more opportunities to access vaccines in advance of these events.”
Get vaccinated. Get kinky and wild (with consent). If your queer cohort is still in the dark about receiving an MPX vaccine, inform them how to do so.
For more information on monkeypox in SF, including eligibility for the vaccine, case counts, vaccine locations, and ways to avoid infection visit sf.gov/monkeypox.
