Comment The Biden administration plans to declare the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency as soon as Thursday in an effort to raise awareness and unlock additional flexibility and funding to fight the spread of the virus. The statement will be made by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who is expected to discuss the plan in an afternoon briefing, said two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment. The health secretary plans a second statement that would authorize federal officials to rush medical countermeasures, such as potential treatments and vaccines, without going through full federal reviews. It would also allow more flexibility in how the current vaccine supply is administered, officials said. The administration’s announcement follows similar decisions by health officials in New York, California and Illinois and global health leaders. The World Health Organization declared on July 23 that monkeypox was a public health emergency of international concern, its highest level alert, after confirmed cases in about 70 countries where the virus has not historically spread. Federal leaders have spent weeks debating whether to declare monkeypox a public health emergency, and officials said Thursday’s planned announcement is part of a broader push to contain the virus. The announcement follows the White House’s decision this week to name Robert J. Fenton Jr., Jr., a longtime Federal Emergency Management Agency official, to coordinate the nation’s response to the virus. HHS and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. U.S. officials have scrambled to find strategies to boost access to treatments and vaccines for monkeypox, with limited supply of Jynennos, the only vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration to protect against the virus. Federal officials have identified about 1.6 million people as the highest risk for monkeypox, but the U.S. has only received enough doses of Jyennos to fully cover about 550,000 people. More than 6,600 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in the United States since May 18, with the vast majority occurring among men who have sex with men — a total that doubles roughly every 8 days, but which experts believe is significant. Officials have also reported at least five cases of monkeypox in children, believed to have been contracted through household transmission. WHO officials Last week he advised men who have sex with men to temporarily reduce their number of sexual partners in an effort to reduce transmission. What you need to know about monkeypox symptoms, treatments and protection While health officials have stressed that monkeypox poses far fewer risks than the coronavirus — with few deaths worldwide and none so far in the United States — the virus can lead to fever, swollen lymph nodes, a rash and often painful lesions that can last for weeks and end in scars. The virus is also associated with more serious complications in children, pregnant women and people with immune disorders. The infectious disease, which comes from the same family of viruses as smallpox, is spread primarily through close contact, and experts say they believe skin-to-skin contact during sexual activity is a major source of transmission in the current outbreak. But they warn that the virus spreads through other forms of touch and can circulate outside the gay community, noting a handful of cases in women and children. Some Biden officials have argued in the past that declaring a monkeypox emergency would draw attention to the growing outbreak and boost the nation’s overall response. For example, the emergency declaration can be used to compel hospitals to report more data about their monkeypox patients and allow the Food and Drug Administration to expedite medical countermeasures that might otherwise take months or years to develop. to undergo traditional regulatory reviews. Federal officials also on Thursday released an “options memo” on how a public health emergency would improve the nation’s smallpox response, according to two officials who were not authorized to comment. POLITICO first reported the memo’s existence. Many public health experts have also confirmed the WHO’s decision to declare a public health emergency, saying a coordinated global response is “essential” to stem the growing epidemic. House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (DN.Y.) last week called on HHS to declare a public health emergency, calling the move “a critical next step” in fighting the spread of the virus. But Becerra’s decision to declare monkeypox a state of emergency could create political complications for the White House, which has faced calls from advocates to declare gun violence a public health emergency and climate change a national emergency. need. Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and reproductive health rights groups also pressed the administration to declare abortion access a public health emergency after the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and led to new abortion restrictions across the nation. The Biden administration also continued to renew public health emergency declarations, which expire every 90 days, for opioids and the coronavirus.