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Good Morning, Brooklyn: Thursday, August 4, 2022

August 4, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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GILLIBRAND CALLS ON BIDEN TO STEP UP VACCINE PRODUCTION: As New York State emerges as a major center of the monkeypox outbreak, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is leading 8 of her Senate colleagues in calling on the Biden administration to invoke the Defense Production Act to increase domestic production of and access to monkeypox vaccines. Senator Gillibrand also held a virtual press conference to speak on this issue and was joined by Dr. Jay Varma, Director of the Center for Pandemic Prevention and Response at Weill Cornell Medicine; Dr. Donald Chen, an infectious disease specialist and hospital epidemiologist at Westchester Medical Center; and Amanda Babine, Executive Director of Equality New York.

There are currently over 6,000 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the United States, including several in children.

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MORE ROUNDS OF MONKEYPOX VACCINE ARRIVING IN NY: Governor Kathy Hochul yesterday announced the latest round of the JYNNEOS vaccine that will be distributed to local health departments. To ensure all vaccine allotments across the country are being put to optimal use, the Phase 3 allocations are being divided by the federal government into three installments and delivered as the states administer vaccines.

In accordance with CDC guidance advising Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) for the current Monkeypox outbreak, those already exposed or likely to have been exposed are prioritized in the state allocation to counties. Eligibility includes New Yorkers with recent exposure to monkeypox within the past 14 days, those at high risk of a recent exposure to monkeypox, including members of the gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender non-conforming community and those who have had skin-to-skin contact with someone in a social network experiencing monkeypox activity, who may have met casually through social networking.

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PUBLIC ART EXHIBIT WRAPS UP WITH TRIBUTE: Partnerships for Parks, a joint program of NYC Parks and City Parks Foundation, will hold a commemorative event recognizing the conclusion of public art installation “Community Heroes,” which is hosted with Photoville. Amplifying visual storytellers through activating public spaces, Photoville’s “Community Heroes” project showcases local heroes of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights at St. Andrew’s Playground in Brooklyn.

The community members behind the “Community Heroes” project will gather to de-install the works, with the “heroes” as featured speakers, reflecting on their personal stories and on what St. Andrew’s Playground and the surrounding community means to them.

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BROOKLYNITES ARE BANK OF AMERICA STUDENT LEADERS: High school seniors Fredo Tapia (Bay Ridge) and Hope Cheung (Bath Beach), two of this year’s Bank of America Student Leaders, are participating in paid summer internships with local nonprofits YMCA of Greater New York and DREAM, respectively. As part of this program, the students are gaining workforce skills and first-hand experience in serving their communities, earning $17 per hour and receiving a Chromebook.

Fredo and Hope will also participate in a virtual Leadership Summit with student Leaders from across the country.