Newsroom

Thursday, July 28, 2022

In a joint letter sent today, Judge Hidalgo and Mayor Sylvester Turner have requested additional Monkeypox vaccine doses from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We are eager and ready to vaccinate at-risk populations before the virus spreads exponentially, rather than wait for exponential growth and then catch up like other jurisdictions have had to do. We have an opportunity to truly mitigate this virus, but the only way for us to seize this opportunity is through more vaccines.” Judge Lina Hidalgo said.

With the expectation that additional vaccines will arrive from the federal government as supply chains catch up, Judge Hidalgo and Commissioners will be discussing vaccine distribution strategies at Commissioners Court on August 2. In the meantime, Harris County Public Health has a limited quantity of Monkeypox vaccines available to those who meet a very specific criteria. Additional details here at Readyharris.org

“We recognize the limited quantity of vaccines means there is not enough for everyone who may be at risk. That is the reality of jurisdictions around the nation. We are working to get these vaccines into arms as fairly and efficiently as possible, while recognizing that, given the limited quantities, there is no perfect solution. That is why I am endeavoring to receive more vaccines from our federal partners.”

“My guiding light continues to be to always err on the side of transparency. Currently, we have the opportunity to chart a different path with Monkeypox if we vaccinate those at risk, but I need to be clear with the community that, while vaccines exist and we have some of them, we simply do not have enough vaccines to do that. I am committed to ensuring we use each dose we receive and, beyond that, to fighting for additional resources from the community,” Judge Hidalgo added.