Ethicist explains Monkeypox declaration

The U.S. has declared a public health emergency to bolster the federal response to the outbreak of monkeypox that already has infected more than 7,100 Americans. The announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services frees up federal funding and resources to fight the virus, which may cause fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and pimple-like bumps on many parts of the body. "Monkeypox might not have made it into the health emergency category, except we've just been through COVID. We saw what happened with the kind of, let's say, sluggish response to the initial COVID outbreak," Arthur Caplan, Director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said.