Biden-Harris Administration Announces Additional Deliveries of Vaccine as Part of Nationwide Vaccine Strategy for Preventing Monkeypox

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today began delivering additional doses of vaccine as part of an enhanced nationwide vaccination strategy to mitigate the spread of monkeypox in communities where transmission is highest and with populations most at risk. As new orders come in, HHS will ship doses to those jurisdictions within one business day.

As of July 1, the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), managed by the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), has shipped 19,965 doses of JYNNEOS to 15 jurisdictions across the United States as part of the initial phase of the strategy. Also, an additional 11,565 doses have been ordered as of July 1 by jurisdictions and those are being processed for delivery.

“We are coordinating with states and jurisdictions to support their local monkeypox response with vaccines that can help prevent the spread of the virus,” said HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell. “We will continue to be responsive to jurisdictions and deliver vaccine as quickly as we can while we maintain a focus on fair and equitable distribution nationwide.”   

Once requests for vaccine are made by the jurisdictions and approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the SNS prepares the vaccine for shipment and can deliver the doses as soon as the next day. Throughout the implementation of this strategy, data on JYNNEOS deliveries will be publicly available every Wednesday beginning July 6. For additional details, see the distribution tables on the JYNNEOS Monkeypox Vaccine Distribution by Jurisdiction page.

Jurisdictions may also request shipments of the ACAM2000 vaccine, which is in much greater supply, but due to significant side effects is not recommended for everyone. ACAM2000 is FDA approved for smallpox but could also be used to vaccinate at-risk individuals under an appropriate regulatory mechanism outside of its labeled indication. The CDC currently has an expanded access Investigational New Drug protocol that allows its use for monkeypox. To date, the SNS has distributed more than 800 doses of ACAM2000 to combat the current monkeypox outbreak.

Under the national vaccine strategy, HHS is rapidly expanding access to hundreds of thousands of doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine for prophylactic use against monkeypox in areas with the highest transmission and need. Doses of JYNNEOS are allocated based on the number of individuals at risk for monkeypox who also have pre-existing conditions, like HIV.

This expanded vaccine strategy is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s broader monkeypox outbreak response plan to mitigate the spread of the virus and protect those at highest risk. From day one of the outbreak, the Biden Administration acted with urgency to deploy testing and treatments to communities most impacted, scaling testing capacity to more than 70 labs in 48 states and began shipping its FDA-cleared orthopoxvirus tests last week to five major commercial labs to further increase testing capacity and convenience in every community.

The Administration is also communicating regularly with community leaders, health care providers, and stakeholders in high-risk communities to raise awareness of the outbreak and increase access to tests, vaccines, and treatments.

Jurisdictions receiving these first allocations include:  

Current as of July 1, 2022, 3 p.m.
* Shipped
** Partially shipped