A12 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, MAY 23 , 2022
BY ANNABELLE TIMSIT
AND SEUNG MIN KIMPresident Biden said Sunday
that the United States is looking
into what vaccines might be
available to protect people
against monkeypox, saying that
“everybody” should be con-
cerned as cases continue to
spread around the world and
some countries beef up their
treatment stockpiles.
“We’re working on it hard to
figure out what we do and what
vaccine, if any, might be available
for it,” Biden said from South
Korea, where he has been on an
official visit.
Biden said the recent spread of
monkeypox infections — identi-
fied by the World Health Organi-
zation in at least 12 countries
where the relatively rare disease
is not endemic — could be “con-
sequential” if it continues.
Health advisers “haven’t told
me the level of exposure yet, but
it is something that everybody
should be concerned about,”
Biden said. “It is a concern in
that if it were to spread, it would
be consequential.”
U.S. national security adviser
Jake Sullivan said that the Unit-
ed States has vaccines available
to treat a potential monkeypox
outbreak and that Biden has
been briefed on the case tracks
domestically and abroad. “He’s
being apprised of this on a very
regular basis,” Sullivan said,
briefing journalists Sunday on
Air Force One after departing
South Korea.
Scientists are rushing to figure
out what is causing the infec-
tions and how to respond. The
WHO has received reports of 92
cases confirmed in a lab and 28
suspected cases under investiga-
tion in the United States, Cana-
da, Australia and nine countries
in Europe. Two countries not on
the WHO list — Israel and Swit-
zerland — reported their firstconfirmed cases on Saturday.
Studies suggest that the small-
pox vaccine is at least 85 percent
effective against monkeypox, ac-
cording to the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention,
which notes that the United
States has licensed two vaccines
to prevent smallpox, with one
being authorized specifically for
monkeypox.
The as-yet unexplained spread
of a contagious virus has set off
alarm bells in a scientific com-
munity still reeling from the
coronavirus pandemic — but
some experts take care to note
that the two are different. Mon-
keypox transmits less easily be-
tween humans, and there are
vaccine options that have been
shown to be effective against the
disease.
“This is not a new virus to us.
We’ve known about this virus for
decades,” Ashish Jha, the White
House coronavirus response co-
ordinator, said on ABC News’s
“This Week.”
“This is a virus we understand.
We have vaccines against it. We
have treatments against it. ... It’snot as contagious as covid. So I
am confident we’re going be able
to keep our arms around it.”
At this point, the general risk
to the public from monkeypox is
considered “very, very low,” Tom
Inglesby, the director of the
Johns Hopkins Center for Health
Security, previously told The
Washington Post.
One monkeypox infection was
identified in Massachusetts, and
New York City health officials
said Friday that two patients
were tested as part of an investi-
gation into suspected cases of
monkeypox in the state. One
patient tested positive for or-
thopoxvirus, the family of viruses
to which monkeypox belongs,
“and had an illness consistent
with monkeypox,” state authori-
ties said.
Jha said he would not be
surprised to see a few more cases
in the coming days.
On Wednesday, Bavarian Nor-
dic, the Copenhagen-based com-
pany that developed the small-
pox vaccine licensed for use
against monkeypox in the United
States, said the U.S. governmenthad exercised its options under
an agreement with the company
to “supply a freeze-dried version
of JYNNEOS® smallpox vaccine,
thus allowing for the first doses
of this version to be manufac-
tured and invoiced in 2023 and
2024.”
The order of new doses of the
vaccine, which has a longer shelf
life, is worth $119 million, Bavar-
ian Nordic said in a news release.
Under its agreement with the
company, the U.S. Biomedical
Advanced Research and Devel-
opment Authority can still exer-
cise options worth $180 million
for about 13 million freeze-dried
doses of the smallpox vaccine in
the future.
A Health and Human Services
spokesperson told Axios that the
purchase was not a direct re-
sponse to the infections but said
the doses could be used to treat
monkeypox.
Separately, Bavarian Nordic
said it had “secured a contract
with an undisclosed European
country to supply its IMVANEX®
smallpox vaccine in response to
new cases of monkeypox evolv-ing during May 2022.” Imvanex,
as the Jynneos vaccine is known
in Europe, is licensed there only
for the treatment of smallpox,
but it has been used “off-label” in
previous monkeypox incidents.
At least two European coun-
tries have moved to stockpile
vaccines in a possible effort to
get ahead of the spread. British
Health Secretary Sajid Javid con-
firmed Friday that the United
Kingdom — where the WHO says
21 to 30 monkeypox infections
have been reported — has “pro-
cured further doses of vaccines
that are effective against Mon-
keypox.”
Meanwhile, Spain is preparing
to purchase thousands of addi-
tional doses of the Imvanex vac-
cine, Spanish newspaper El Pais
reported. Spain is also moving to
buy more of an antiviral treat-
ment for monkeypox called Teco-
virimat, according to the news-
paper.Kim reported from Tokyo. Meryl
Kornfield, Hannah Knowles, Timothy
Bella, Lindsey Bever and Carolyn Y.
Johnson contributed to this report.Monkeypox vaccine assessment underway, Biden says
Spread of cases aroundthe world should concern
‘everybody,’ he saysBY MICHELLE YE HEE LEEseoul — Eleven months ago,
South Korea’s top prosecutor
launched his presidential cam-
paign, making his first run at
politics. This weekend — just over
a week into his presidency —
Yoon Suk-yeol made his debut on
the global stage alongside the
world’s most powerful leader.
It’s been a whirlwind begin-
ning to the presidency for Yoon,
who squeaked by to victory with
the narrowest margin in South
Korea’s democratic history and
was faced with his first leader-
ship test: forging a relationship
with President Biden, the leader
of South Korea’s most powerful
ally. He was inaugurated May 10.
The differences between Yoon
and Biden on diplomacy could
not be more stark. Yoon is a
political rookie with no foreign
policy experience. Biden is a ca-
reer politician with decades of
experience in foreign relations.
“If you compare it to boxing,
President Yoon is an aggressive
fighter, like an infighter. Presi-
dent Biden is an out-boxer, well-
versed in strategically jabbing
and ducking,” wrote Hankook
Ilbo, a South Korean news outlet.
But South Korean commenta-
tors pointed out that the two
men’s personalities are similar in
ways that could foster the right
chemistry — which is particularly
important in dealing with an
American president who has em-
phasized the importance of per-
sonal relationships in foreign re-
lations.
During their first state dinner,the two men bonded over their
pets and their families, the South
Korean presidential office said.
(Yoon has four dogs and three
cats. Biden has a puppy and a cat,
and until recently raised a shelter
dog, the first to live in the White
House.) The menu included
bibimbap, dumplings and sous-
vide beef ribs.
“I’m honored to be able to meet
you so early in your tenure, and
it’s a pleasure to get to know you
personally,” Biden said during his
remarks at the two leaders’ joint
news conference on Saturday.
“Today, I also realized that
President Biden and I see eye to
eye on so many fronts,” Yoon said.
In the end, the carefully cho-
reographed visit reinforced the
countries’ alliance and was large-
ly uneventful — except when
Yoon bungled an answer on gen-
der equality, a dominant issue of
the presidential campaign. (Dur-
ing the campaign, Yoon was criti-cized for his gaffes, once standing
in silence for two minutes at a
candidate forum when the tele-
prompter went down.)
Yoon appeared to struggle to
answer a question about the role
of South Korea as a leading econ-
omy to ensure equal opportunity
for women’s advancement. South
Korea consistently ranks low
among developed countries re-
garding gender equality in pay,
political advancement and eco-
nomic participation.
Biden’s trip arrived unusually
early in Yoon’s term and was
arranged while the presidential
transition team was still hiring
staff, setting up their offices and
working out the logistics of a
presidential office.
But the two sides had a tem-
plate off which to work: the
agreement last year between the
Biden team and Moon Jae-in’s
administration to expand the
military alliance into one thatalso encompasses economic secu-
rity.
Now, Yoon faces the challenge
of balancing his foreign policy
ambitions with an overflowing
domestic policy agenda, said
Duyeon Kim, a Seoul-based ad-
junct senior fellow at the Indo-
Pacific Security Program at the
Center for a New American Secu-
rity. Yoon “needs to prove himself
at home this year because his
election victory was so razor
thin.”
“So, we’ll have to see if Yoon
has the bandwidth and governing
style to be able to give both
domestic and foreign policies the
attention they need,” Kim said.
While Biden’s hope in the Indo-
Pacific region is to lean on alli-
ances to counter the economic
and military rise of China, it
remains to be seen whether
South Korea will be able to fully
join the United States in that
endeavor. China is South Korea’slargest trading partner, and
South Korea has faced harsh
economic retaliation in the past
when Beijing was unhappy with
Seoul’s coordinated actions with
Washington.
With China drawing North Ko-
rea closer in recent years, South
Korea will also need a coopera-
tive relationship with China to
deal with its northern neighbor.
“Yoon and his advisers have
the right intention, but it’s un-
clear if Seoul will truly be able to
stand up to China when faced
with geopolitical and economic
realities, and when Seoul will
eventually need Beijing to make
progress on the North Korea
issue,” Kim said.
As Biden left his final event
with Yoon on Sunday, the two
men shook hands to say goodbye,
according to the presidential of-
fice. “I trust you,” Biden told
Yoon, and the two men gave each
other a thumbs-up.Biden’s visit tests new South Korean president, a foreign policy novice
Early on, Yoon faces task
of forging relationship
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