New York City has declared monkeypox a public health emergency, after officials described New York as the “epicenter” of the outbreak, with tens of thousands of people vulnerable to exposure. California and Illinois also declared states of emergency Monday over the rapid spread of monkeypox. This week, the first monkeypox deaths outside of Africa were reported in Spain, Brazil and India. Meanwhile, African nations still have not received a single dose of vaccines against monkeypox, even as the United States and European Union have secured hundreds of thousands of doses. This is Dr. Ahmed Ogwell, acting director of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Ahmed Ogwell Ouma: “Let us get vaccines onto the continent. Let us get more resources for preparedness and response to come to the continent. And let us get attention focused on where we can be able to really stop monkeypox at source. And the endemic countries here in Africa is really the best place to be able to start

We’ll have more on the monkeypox outbreak later in the broadcast with journalist Steven Thrasher, author of “The Viral Underclass.”