Deep into their third year of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, local and state public health workers are battered, depleted and, in many places, demoralized.
And now, they face a rapidly spreading new virus: monkeypox. The response requires delicate political maneuvering and already has run into shortcomings in testing, vaccines and anti-viral treatments — similar to the experience with COVID-19.
Some public health authorities worry about the continued ability of an exhausted and perennially underfunded public health system to meet multiple threats at once.
