US offers extra monkeypox vaccine doses for gay pride events – The Boston Globe

Officials said that work was already underway to transfer technology from Bavarian Nordic to Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing, and that manufacturing of the additional doses could begin later this year.

The arrangement, which had been discussed for weeks, comes after the White House faced questions about why it had not ordered more doses or transported them from overseas, including hundreds of thousands of doses that were at Bavarian Nordic’s factory in Denmark awaiting FDA inspection in June.

“With this agreement we will significantly expand our manufacturing capabilities into the United States allowing Bavarian Nordic to meet the growing worldwide demand,” Paul Chaplin, CEO of Bavarian Nordic, said in a statement.

Bloomberg News first reported the planned deal between the companies.

At a press briefing earlier Thursday, Biden administration officials said they had been working with Bavarian Nordic to help increase its production capacity.

“They’re a small manufacturer,” said Dawn O’Connell, head of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which oversees the national stockpile of vaccines. O’Connell added that the administration was working with Bavarian Nordic on additional manufacturing capacity increases, such as “potentially working with a larger pharmaceutical company, for example.”

Administration officials have approached vaccine manufacturers such as Pfizer or Merck to partner with Bavarian Nordic, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations who were not authorized to comment.

Meanwhile, the US is setting aside an extra 50,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine for places with upcoming gay pride events, health officials said Thursday.

The number of doses sent to each place will be based on factors like the size of the event, how many health workers will be available to give shots, and how many of the attendees are considered at highest risk for catching the virus.

“More shots in arms is how we get the outbreak under control,” Fenton told reporters Thursday. He said the effort is an attempt to “meet people where they are.”

At least a dozen US pride events are scheduled over the next two months, including large gatherings in Atlanta and New Orleans in early September. US officials said they will send up to 2,000 additional doses to North Carolina, where the Charlotte Pride Festival & Parade will be held this weekend.

Southern Decadence, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ events, is expected to attract 200,000 or more people to New Orleans over Labor Day weekend. The Bourbon Street Extravaganza, a free concert held amid the event, has been canceled over monkeypox concerns, organizers said this week.

Frank Perez, a former grand marshal of the parade that’s the centerpiece of Southern Decadence, said a number of New Orleans gay bars have already had vaccine events. He said so far officials have done an adequate job with the vaccine campaign, although “more is better.”

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cautioned: “While we are offering the vaccine at these events to those at high risk, this is a two-dose vaccine series, and receiving the vaccine at the event will not provide protection at the event itself.”

Health officials also are urging other steps to prevent the spread of the virus, including temporarily limiting sexual partners.

Monkeypox is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals, but it wasn’t considered a disease that spreads easily among people until May, when infections emerged in Europe and the US.

There have been more than 39,000 cases reported in countries that have not historically seen monkeypox. The vast majority have occurred in men who have sex with men, but health officials stress that anyone can get monkeypox.

The US has the most infections of any country — more than 13,500. About 98 percent of US cases are men, and about 93 percent were men who reported recent sexual contact with other men.

Officials say the virus has been spreading mainly through skin-on-skin contact, but they warn it might also transmit in other ways, including through touching linens used by someone with monkeypox.

People with monkeypox may experience fever, body aches, chills, and fatigue. Many in the outbreak have developed extremely painful zit-like bumps. No one in the US has died, but deaths have been reported in other countries.

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