Some Monkeypox Vaccines Available For Montclair, Verona, Cedar Grove

MONTCLAIR, NJ — The Montclair Health Department is offering monkeypox vaccines on an “extremely limited basis” to residents of Montclair, Verona and Cedar Grove, a local official said Tuesday.

According to Montclair Councilman Peter Yacobellis, there is a limited supply of vaccines available. He said:

“If a resident feels they were a close contact to a positive case, they can call the Montclair Township Health Department at 973-509-4970 and ask to speak with one of our public health nurses. The nurse will take the resident through an interview process to determine if the resident is qualified, based on confirmation of being in proximity to the positive case. Unfortunately, while we await stronger state and federal response, this is what we're working with right now and aren't offering the vaccine to at-risk populations generally. Please reach out to Katya Wowk, our communications director, at kwowk@montclairnjusa.org, or our health officer, Keith Costello, at kcostello@montclairnjusa.org with questions.”

The Montclair Health Department also serves the towns of Verona and Cedar Grove.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), monkeypox – which was discovered in 1958 – has symptoms are similar to smallpox, but milder. The disease is rarely fatal.

The CDC says that monkeypox can spread person-to-person through:

• direct contact with the infectious rash, scabs, or body fluids
• respiratory secretions during prolonged, face-to-face contact, or during intimate physical contact, such as kissing, cuddling, or sex
• touching items (such as clothing or linens) that previously touched the infectious rash or body fluids
• pregnant people can spread the virus to their fetus through the placenta

There have been 1,972 confirmed cases of the virus in the United States, according to the CDC. According to New Jersey health officials, the state has logged 41 cases of monkeypox as of Monday. Read More: NJ's Monkeypox Cases Double In 5 Days

No one has died of the disease in the United States, The New York Times reported Monday.

Yacobellis said Costello informed the town council that as of last weekend, there have been no positive cases of monkeypox in Montclair. However, that doesn’t mean there’s no need for action, he added.

“Humanity has entered a new era of infectious disease, and neither our health care infrastructure in the United States nor how we prioritize spending dollars in the protection of human life at the national level are set up today to meet the challenge,” Yacobellis wrote.

The councilman continued:

“Border walls and tanks can't protect us from the actual thing that is killing the most Americans: disease. Our government needs a radical shift in focus to prioritize protection of life in the context of public health. We don't yet know how monkeypox will play out globally. But COVID-19 should have taught us that having the infrastructure and capacity to vaccinate the American people at scale is a new necessity.”

“We just went through this,” Yacobellis told Patch. “The trail has been blazed by COVID-19. My concern is that monkeypox is getting wrapped up in broader pandemic fatigue and that as a society we're becoming complacent. We simply must make structural changes to how governments operate in this new era of infectious disease so that we are prepared when – God forbid – something far more lethal comes along.”

“With regard to vaccination, we know the federal government is working on increasing supply,” he said. “But we know from the experience with COVID-19 that we can't rely on vaccination as a prevention tool in these early days. So this raises a question of, given we don't have enough vaccines right now, why are we not more aggressively contract-tracing or directing people to quarantine if experiencing symptoms or if they suspect they've been exposed?”

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site. Don’t forget to visit the Patch Montclair Facebook page.