Rep. Ritchie Torres calls for investigation of federal monkeypox response
NEW YORK -- The sharp rise in monkeypox cases is expected to continue. New York City now has 618 confirmed cases of the virus and testing is still ramping up.
As CBS2's Nick Caloway reported Monday, one lawmaker is calling for a federal investigation into the handling of the outbreak.
"The CDC moved too slowly in distributing tests and the FDA moved too slowly in distributing vaccines," Congressman Ritchie Torres said.
Torres, who represents the South Bronx, said the federal government failed the American people in trying to contain the monkeypox outbreak.
READ MORE: Monkeypox in NYC: Identifying symptoms, prevention tips, how to get a vaccine and more
Torres, who is openly gay, joined LGBTQ advocates in calling on the U.S. Health and Human Services to investigate the sluggish federal response.
"We're not alleging criminality. We are alleging incompetence and indifference to the public health needs of the LGBTQ community," Torres said.
The government recently made another 131,000 doses available to states and ordered nearly 7million, but most of those won't arrive for months.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she expects more doses in New York soon.
"Help is on the way. We continue to press because it's important. It's good to know there is a vaccine, but if there's not enough, it doesn't help people," Hochul said.
READ MORE: 3 mass vaccination sites open in New York City in fight to stop monkeypox outbreak
On Face the Nation on Sunday, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, warned it may be too late to contain the outbreak.
"I think the window for getting control of this and containing it has closed. If it hasn't closed, it's starting to close," Gottlieb said.
Anyone can get the disease, but monkeypox is still spread primarily among men who have sex with men.
Experts say we are likely only detecting a fraction of the actual number of cases.
"It's a fact there's cases outside that community right now. We're not picking them up because we're not looking there. This has spread more broadly. I wouldn't be surprised if there's thousands of cases now," Gottlieb said.
The virus is spread primarily through skin-on-skin contact. It can be very unpleasant, but is treatable.
So far, no one has died from it in the U.S.
