OUR PUBLIC HEALTH COMMUNITY DOING ITS USUAL STELLAR JOB: As Monkeypox Spread in New York, 300,000 Vaccine Doses Sat in Denmark.

On the Thursday before Pride Weekend last month, hundreds of men dropped what they were doing and raced to a city-run health clinic in Manhattan. Finally, more than a month after monkeypox appeared in the city, a vaccine was being made available to sexually active gay and bisexual men, among whom the virus was rapidly spreading.

But there was a catch: There were only 1,000 doses available. Within two hours, the only clinic offering the shots began turning people away.

At that same moment, about 300,000 doses of a ready-to-use vaccine owned by the United States sat in a facility in Denmark. U.S. officials had waited weeks as the virus spread in New York and beyond before deciding to ship those doses to the United States.

Even then, there was little apparent urgency: The doses were flown piecemeal, arriving in shipments spread out over more than a week. Many didn’t arrive until this month, more than six weeks after the first case was identified in New York City.

By holding back the doses, an early opportunity to contain or slow the largest monkeypox outbreak in the country appears to have slipped by.

Well, to be fair, we need a new public health emergency for the midterms.

Related: Fauci Says Gay Men Should Get Monkeypox Vaccine First.