The Biden administration came under fire on Friday from leading Democrats vying to represent the LGBTQ community in the center of New York City in Congress for allowing red tape to stymie the importation of 1 million doses of the much needed monkeypox vaccine.
The remarks were made only hours after news stories highlighted how the shots were in limbo because the Food and Drug Administration refused to inspect the Danish factory and then failed to accept the inspections carried out by European regulators.
Bill de Blasio, a former mayor, asserted in a statement, “It’s now July and this is a vaccine that has been around and approved since 2019, which just makes the FDA’s poor planning around vaccine procurement all the more maddening and outrageous.”
The former mayor of the city is one of the six Democrats vying to represent the newly created 10th Congressional District, which includes the West Village, the longtime home of the homosexual community in the five boroughs and significant portions of brownstone Brooklyn.
Lower East Side Councilwoman Carlina Rivera swiftly joined him in his indignation and urged that the White House either immediately request an FDA examination or accept the seals of approval from European officials.
Another candidate, Daniel Goldman, a lawyer and Levi Strauss heir best known for presiding over the first impeachment proceedings against then-President Donald Trump, joined the chorus of anger.
In a letter to the White House on June 28 asking the FDA take action, public health advocates in New York City exposed the existence of the million ready-to-ship dosages. They said the letter was ignored.
The White House rejected requests to permit the use of the European inspections while defending the administration’s attempts to contain the monkeypox outbreak.
An FDA spokesperson claimed that it accelerated the examination, but she would not specify if it had started, was finished, or, if not yet started, when it may start or how long it would take.
As the number of instances of monkeypox continued to rise, reaching a total of 160 cases on Friday, the fury over the marooned dosages grew. This is nearly twice as many as the 87 reported at this time last week and represents an increase of 44% over the 111 totaled on Tuesday.
