Never Let a Good Outbreak Go to Waste

Abstract

The multinational outbreak of mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) that began in 2022 resulted in more than 90,000 reported cases, over 150 deaths, and - importantly - a coordinated international response to a rapidly spreading infectious disease.¹ Because of decades of global preparedness efforts, vaccines and therapeutics for a related orthopox virus (smallpox) were available in many global stockpiles. Few of these medical countermeasures were specifically designed, evaluated, or approved for use against mpox disease, requiring the global scientific community to identify how best to quickly translate what was known into what was needed.