The White House claimed on Sunday that the monkeypox epidemic could be 'eliminated' from the United States with more vaccines and testing available, as the WHO triggered its highest level ever. warning about this disease.

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“The plan is to eliminate the virus from the United States. We can do this,” White House coronavirus response coordinator Ashish Jha said on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” program.

“We acted quickly,” he said, responding to criticism that health authorities reacted too late since the first cases in May, before the virus spread, the vast majority among men who have sex with women. men.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) dashboard as of July 22, 2,890 cases have been detected since the first case in the United States. Monkeypox is characterized by fever, rashes, and usually heals on its own, but the disease can cause severe pain.

New York City (nearly 800 cases), protested the lack of vaccines and an elected Democrat in the House of Representatives, Adam Schiff, judged that the federal government was "not up to the necessary response ".

"When we started two months ago, we had a limited supply of vaccines," replied Ashish Jha, "but we got more than any other country." “Now we have more than 300,000. We will distribute hundreds of thousands of them in the coming days and weeks,” he continued, referring to nearly 800,000 doses of Jynneos vaccine which were blocked in Denmark. pending inspection by the US Drug Administration (FDA).

On Saturday, the World Health Organization (WHO) triggered the highest level of alert in an attempt to stem the surge in cases across the world.

Since early May, when it was detected outside African countries where it is endemic, more than 16,836 cases have been detected in 74 countries, according to the CDC.