The CDC Says Renaming Monkeypox Will Nip Stigma Against Africans

In the briefing this week, Ogwell said, "We are very glad that now we can call them Clade 1 and Clade 2 rather than make reference to these variants using African regions." "We are really pleased with that change in naming, " he continued, "which will remove the stigma from disease-causing variants."

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Monkeypox was first identified in 1958 and named after monkeys after an outbreak of the disease erupted in communities of monkeys that scientists gathered for research.

Amid the rising cases of monkeypox, US President Joe Biden's administration announced plans to speed up their efforts in addressing the spread of the disease by investing in an incremental supply of over 1.8 million doses of the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the JYNNEOS vaccine, authorizing healthcare providers to issue the injection to people 18 years and older to mitigate the heightened risk of the disease.

According to Bloomberg, The Biden administration is reportedly working out a deal permitting a Michigan-based manufacturing company to package millions of doses of the monkeypox vaccine made by Danish manufacturer Bavarian Nordic A/S. If the deal is successful, the company could start packaging the Jynneos vaccine in a few months.

In his briefing, Ogwell appealed to the people in the diaspora to contribute their efforts towards empowering all African countries to improve their testing capacity for the virus.