President Joe Biden is recovering from coronavirus, but it is unclear if he is prepared to personally fight monkeypox should the disease enter the White House.
The United States now leads the world in confirmed monkeypox cases according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the Biden administration continues to escalate its response to the outbreak.
But the disease has not reached the levels of alarm in the White House compared to fears of the coronavirus.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration advised Americans concerned about monkeypox to talk to their doctors about possibly getting the vaccine.
“The best person or place to go to is your medical provider and have that conversation to see if — if it is — you know, if it is beneficial to you to get vaccinated,” she said during the daily briefing when asked by reporters if the White House was recommending that people get the monkeypox vaccine.
White House COVID-19 Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha reassured Americans on Sunday that monkeypox could be contained.
“I do think monkeypox can be contained. Absolutely,” he said in an interview with CBS reporter Margaret Brennan. “The way we contain monkeypox is we have a very simple, straightforward strategy on this right, which is: make testing widely available. … Get vaccines out.”
It is unclear if the virus poses a threat to the president at this time, or if he has been vaccinated out of caution.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Breitbart News about if Biden has been vaccinated or tested for the disease.
Monkeypox spreads through skin-to-skin contact, largely in the gay community among men who have sexual relations with men.
But Jha said the White House was preparing for the disease to spread outside the gay community.
“We’re not surprised that there are— you’re gonna see some other individuals get infected as well,” he said.