City Shortens Second Dose Monkeypox Vaccine Eligibility to 28-Day Interval; Will Open Over 50,000 New Appointments

Second dose appointments will be open to anyone who received their first dose at least 28 days ago

On Friday, September 16, over 50,000 new first and second dose appointments will be made available at 4 p.m.

September 15, 2022 — The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene today announced that, starting tomorrow, Friday, September 16, at 4 p.m., anyone who received their first doses of monkeypox vaccine at least 28 days ago can schedule a second dose appointment. The City is also expanding eligibility for vaccinations to people who are under 18 and meet all other criteria. Also, tomorrow, over 50,000 new appointments will be made available, for dates between September 17 and October 6.

“We feel confident that we now have enough supply of vaccine to meet current demand, and are comfortable lowering the window of time between first and second doses,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan. “We know that this provides much deserved peace of mind to New Yorkers who have bravely faced this outbreak. Over these many months, they have adapted to the vaccine supply challenges and have successfully slowed the spread of this virus. We are especially grateful to the affected community, who stepped up to protect themselves and one another, as well as partner organizations who worked tirelessly to share information.”

On September 1, the City announced its initial second dose strategy to provide second doses 10 weeks after the first dose. This policy was put in place to ensure adequate supply and capacity for administration of vaccines to all eligible New Yorkers who needed their first and second doses. Now that there is enough vaccine supply to meet the current demand for first doses, the City is making second doses available 28 days after the first dose, as indicated in the FDA prescribing label. Completing the series with a second dose administered any time after 28 days is expected to boost the immune protection from the vaccine.

People who had first doses between July 24 and September 8 will receive notifications to schedule a second dose appointment.

Additionally, the new eligibility to New Yorkers under the age of 18 years old will ensure that age is less of a barrier to New Yorkers who need vaccination. With the expanded eligibility, vaccine is now open to people who meet all of the following conditions:

• People who have had multiple or anonymous sex partners in the last 14 days and identify as at least one of the following:
  • Gay, bisexual, or other man (cisgender or transgender) who has sex with cis or transgender men or transgender women.
  • Transgender, gender non-conforming, or gender non-binary (regardless of the gender of your sex partners).
  • Sex workers and anyone engaging in survival sex or any other types of transactional sex (including sex in exchange for money, food, shelter or other goods) of any sexual orientation or gender identity.

Minors must have parental, guardian or legal custodian consent, unless the minor is part of a group to whom the law gives the right to consent to their own care, such as married minors, minors who are parents or pregnant, and minors in the military. For people 16 or 17 years of age, such consent should be provided either in person or by phone, at the time of the vaccine appointment. For minors 15 years of age or younger, an adult caregiver must accompany the minor. The parent or guardian must still provide consent by phone at the time of the appointment or by written statement.

Visit our MPX page for more information.

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MEDIA CONTACT: Patrick Gallahue/Victoria Merlino,
pressoffice@health.nyc.gov