St. John’s Ramps Up Monkeypox Vaccine Efforts, Calls for Prevention Strategies
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, August 18 2022
Contact: Cabot Petoia, clpetoia@gmail.com, 828-899-9239
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Los Angeles — This week, due to monkeypox vaccine supplies being quintupled by the new intradermal guidance, St. John’s Community Health is increasing their outreach to eligible populations in Los Angeles. However, demand for the vaccine still far exceeds the supply they’ve been allocated, so their clinics are rushing to find ways to serve as many people as possible, as soon as possible.
For example, this Saturday, St. John’s is partnering with Redline DTLA to vaccinate their patrons. They had 100 vaccines allocated for this event, but over 900 people signed up. Now, they’re working overtime to reschedule 800 people to other days.
Next week, they are holding vaccine events with Club Cobra and DTLA Proud. They will also have weekly monkeypox vaccine clinics at the following locations beginning next week:
- Fridays: Avalon and Rolland Curtis clinics
- Tues-Sat: Compton College
- Wednesday: Crenshaw and Lincoln clinics
St. John’s has been seeing a few new cases of monkeypox per week, and now have the ability to administer Tpoxx to treat patients.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 efforts at St. John’s remain robust, with about 100 people per day receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, and positivity rates remaining in the 30-40 percent range.
“The new intradermal guidance is allowing us to stretch our vaccine supply and serve more people sooner – but we still need more vaccines, and we still need prevention and education strategies around monkeypox to be communicated to the public,” said Jim Mangia, president and CEO of St. John’s Community Health. “We’re focused on getting shots in arms while also keeping our heads up and convening working groups to share essential information around the virus that can help slow the spread.”