Vasan led NYC’s response to the mpox outbreak in summer 2022, with the city being the epicenter of the North American outbreak. The Health Department was the first in the nation to launch MPOX vaccination clinics in June 2022 for “extended Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis”, doing so under extreme national vaccine supply constraints. These clinics, and the close partnership with community leaders, advocates, and providers, led the nation and pushed the federal administration to launch a national mpox response and vaccination strategy just a few weeks later in early July 2022. New York City vaccinated over 100,000 people in the 2022 mpox outbreak, and within weeks cases dramatically declined and the end of the outbreak was eventually declared in early 2023.
