Thread by @khwangreports

The California Senate Select Committee hearing on #monkeypox is about to begin. Stay tuned for updates/livetweets

@Scott_Wiener says "severe public health failures" over the years have led to the outbreak we are experiencing now, citing expiration of the national vaccine stockpile

Wiener says it needs to be acknowledged that the virus is "overwhelmingly" impacting gay and bisexual men without stigmatizing them, and that there is no guarantee that the virus doesn't spread further

Another stumbling block to treatment is that #TPoxx #Tecomirivat doesn't have emergency use authorization from the FDA (the way COVID-19 tests/treatments do), requiring physicians to fill out hours of paperwork and limiting the clinics that can offer it

@DrPanMD lists the outbreaks that have occurred since he took office in 2014: pertussis, measles, zika, Ebola, COVID-19, and now monkeypox. "We need to take these things seriously. We need to invest in public health."

@DrPanMD State epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan says the new FDA approval to split monkeypox vaccines into five doses will vastly "expand the ability to vaccinate." An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 doses are needed in CA. The state has only received 109,000. cnn.com/2022/08/09/hea…

@DrPanMD There are more than 1,300 cases in California. About 2% are hospitalized, and "we have seen our first few pediatric cases and first few female cases," Dr. Pan says. Numbers will be updated by @CAPublicHealth later today: cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/D…

San Francisco General Hospital doctor @VivekJainMD outlines four response areas that must be "urgently funded" by the state to combat #monkeypox spread 👇

1) Locations receiving large numbers of patients seeking testing, including HIV/STD clinics
2) Clinics that don't have the resources to prescribe #TPoxx/#Tecovirimat
3) Research into new modes of testing
4) Support for those who have to isolate for 2-4 weeks

Tracy City Councilmember @DanArriolaCA details the difficulties he and his partner had getting tested and treated for #monkeypox. It took more than four days to get #Tpoxx and more than 24-hours for his partner to get vaccinated

@DanArriolaCA also emphasized that many Central Valley locations have fewer resources, particularly for LGBT communities, than other parts of the state. "It's a very rural area. Not every county has a pride center. Unfortunately we experience a lot of anti-LGBT sentiment"

San Francisco resident David Watson contracted #monkeypox through the casual contact of hugging a friend. He went to the ER three times with extreme pain that "opioids could barely touch." It took 12 days to get #Tpoxx. His husband AND two dogs were also infected.

Stories of #monkeypox jumping from humans back into the animal population are fueling concerns that this will become endemic and commonplace in the U.S. science.org/content/articl…

San Francisco health director Dr. Grant Colfax says they have the capacity to 3,000 people per day, but that sites "consistently run out" early in the week.

Los Angeles County Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis said LA currently has 680 cases, "double the cases we had 10 days ago."

Riverside County Health Director Kimberly Saruwatari reports that the cost of a monkeypox test at a commercial lab is $76, which is a barrier for many people.

Providers I've spoken to say, like COVID, monkeypox tests, treatments and vaccinations are not yet reimbursable. DHCS expects that to change soon and has asked providers to hold their receipts.

With COVID-19, community clinics waited more than two years for millions of dollars owed for vaccinations calmatters.org/health/coronav…

The public health workforce assessment bill Saruwatari mentioned will come up on the suspense file Thursday: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billText…

San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO Tyler TerMeer is pulling no punches, calling the current outbreak a "public health failure"

There are more than 11,000 people on the AIDS Foundation's vaccination waitlist, TerMeer says.

Los Angeles LGBT Center CEO Joe Hollendoner calls on the state to create a comprehensive list of where and when vaccines will become available to mitigate the stampede of people searching for a vaccine

Signing off to write 🫡