Senate Committee Plans Hearings on Response to Monkeypox Outbreak

(Bloomberg) -- US lawmakers will look to press Biden administration health officials on their response to the growing monkeypox outbreak in a Senate hearing planned for next month, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is planning the hearing on monkeypox for mid-September, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

Concerns about monkeypox are rising, with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers pushing the Biden administration for information on its work to quell the outbreak and secure vaccine supplies. In a letter dated Aug. 23, HELP Committee Chair Patty Murray of Washington state asked US health officials “to outline a clear and comprehensive strategy” to ensure supplies of Bavarian Nordic A/S’s Jynneos shot for monkeypox.

Although the US has ordered millions more doses of the vaccine, supply chain snags have slowed the flow of shots into arms. Last week, US health officials said Bavarian Nordic had agreed to work with a contract manufacturer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to help with finishing more than 2 million vaccine vials.

“The administration must do more to address existing, unacceptable shortages in vaccine supply, institute comprehensive distribution and communication strategies, and develop long-term procurement plans,” Murray wrote in the letter to Dawn O’Connell, who heads the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.

Lawmakers want O’Connell to testify at the monkeypox oversight hearing, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. As chair of both the HELP Committee and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, Murray has substantial influence over ASPR’s funding and programs.

LGBTQ Community

In her letter, Murray emphasized that the outbreak has disproportionately impacted the LGBTQ community -- in the US, 99% of cases have been among men who have sex with men and 94% of cases have been linked to sexual contact, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The US leads the world in monkeypox cases, with nearly 16,000. The country also has also received the majority of monkeypox vaccines delivered since May.

An HHS spokesperson said the agency is reviewing Murray’s letter. “We continue to do everything we can to deliver as much vaccine as quickly as possible to states and jurisdictions while ensuring we are doing it equitably and in a way that maximizes utilization.”

The federal government has allocated more than 1 million vials of Jynneos. That includes 360,000 vials HHS allocated Aug. 22, which the HHS spokesperson said represents up to 1.8 million doses of vaccine under new rules that allow for up to five people to be vaccinated with a given vial.

Murray isn’t the first to raise concerns about the government’s response to monkeypox. The HELP Committee’s top Republican, Richard Burr, has also been a harsh critic. Earlier in August, Burr said the administration hadn’t responded to a letter he sent in July asking for details about its monkeypox plan.

“HHS is repeating the exact same mistakes they made during the pandemic: painfully slow to begin testing, wholly disorganized in distributing vaccines and treatments, and messaging that’s confusing and outdated,” the North Carolina senator said in a statement. “HHS appears to have learned nothing from the tragedy of the last three years.”

Burr has also sparred during hearings on Covid with leaders of the CDC, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration who he will likely face off with again in September over monkeypox.

(Updates with HHS response in eighth paragraph.)

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