CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Monkeypox is spreading in the Carolinas, according to the latest data from North and South Carolina health leaders. Many people are searching online for sites giving out the vaccine.
Is it as accessible as the coronavirus vaccine?
THE QUESTION
Is every county health department in North Carolina giving out the monkeypox vaccine?
OUR SOURCES
- The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
- Kody Kinsley, deputy secretary for NCDHHS
THE ANSWER
No, not every county health department in the state is giving out the monkeypox vaccine.
WHAT WE FOUND
First, it's important to recognize who is eligible for the monkeypox vaccine. It's a much smaller pool of people currently eligible for the shot as compared to the coronavirus vaccine.
"Anyone who identifies as a man who has sex with other men or a transgender individual, or anyone who reports in the last 90 days having multiple sex partners, having an STI of any kind, or receiving PREP," Dr. Raynard Washington, director of the Mecklenburg County Health Department, said.
RELATED: Your monkeypox questions answered
NCDHHS lists the county health departments below as receiving direct shipments of the monkeypox vaccine from the federal government.
- Buncombe
- Cumberland
- Durham
- Forsythe
- Guilford
- Mecklenburg
- New Hanover
- Pitt
- Wake
Additional vaccine locations include:
- Duke Clinic (limited to Duke patients only)
- Haywood Health and Human Services
- Henderson County Dept. of Public Health
- Orange County Health Department
- WNC Community Health Services
"As supply continues to increase, our goal is to increase those access points to make it easier and we're working with our local health departments to leverage tools like waiting lists to get those appointments moving," Kinsley said.
There isn't a definitive timeline as to when the state plans to increase the number of vaccination sites for monkeypox. It is still dependent on the federal government to allocate the shots.
"We continue to work with local health departments to improve their optimizations so they can get folks vaccinated as quickly as possible," Kinsley said.
NCDHHS said the monkeypox vaccine is not available at local pharmacies or drug stores. As of Aug. 2, more than 10,000 doses of the vaccine had arrived in North Carolina.
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