The World Health Organization on Saturday declared the unprecedented monkeypox outbreak that has spread around the world a public health emergency, a decision that will empower the agency to take additional measures to try to curb the virus’s spread.

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization said Tuesday that coronavirus cases have tripled across Europe in the past six weeks, accounting for nearly half of all infections globally. Hospitalization rates have also doubled, although intensive care admissions have remained low. 

A Bay Area lawmaker is warning that San Francisco is "veering toward a public health mess" over monkeypox, citing a Wednesday announcement from the San Francisco Department of Public Health that said the agency is running low on monkeypox vaccines and will shutter its clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital until more supply arrives. 

State Rep. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said the timing of the vaccine shortage is especially troubling given the disease's growing prevalence in the area. 

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said the administration of President Joe Biden was "falling short" and "behind the curve" in how it is responding to the current monkeypox outbreak in the wake of what the country learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organization said Tuesday that it will convene a second emergency meeting next week to decide if monkeypox poses a global health threat as cases rise to 9,200.

The U.N. agency declined last month to declare a global emergency in response to monkeypox. But as infections have risen substantially over the last several weeks, the organization is expected to consider whether to issue its highest alert when the emergency committee reconvenes next week.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Dr. Anthony Fauci had a sharp exchange on Thursday during a Senate hearing about the current status of the federal government’s response to COVID-19.

Paul wanted to know more information about royalty payments scientists at the National Institutes of Health have received.

In a bid to avoid “stigmatization,” the World Health Organization plans to rename the virus long known as “monkeypox,” which was first reported in Africa decades ago but has emerged in dozens of countries outside the continent this year.

The planned change comes as the U.N. health agency prepares to convene experts to decide whether the outbreak constitutes a “public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC).

The World Health Organization’s new advisory group tasked with investigating the origin of COVID-19 said Thursday that the lab-leak theory warrants another look.

The Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) released its preliminary report Thursday, the first results of its work to find the origin of COVID-19. The report still claims that a natural origin of SARS-CoV-2 followed by a spillover from animal to human is the most likely origin for the pandemic, but says that the lab leak theory deserves further scrutiny as well.

A panel of experts drafted by the World Health Organization to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare a framework to investigate future outbreaks has published its first report.

The panel, set up in October, comprises 26 experts from around the world and is called the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO).

Its work follows a previous WHO-China report on COVID-19, and a U.S. intelligence inquiry, both of which pointed towards a natural origin for the pandemic, likely from bats, rather than a lab leak.

A team of international scientists tasked with understanding how the coronavirus pandemic began released their first report on Thursday, saying that all hypothesis remain on the table, including a possible laboratory incident.

The 27-member scientific advisory group convened by the World Health Organization said available data suggests the virus jumped from animals to humans but gaps in "key pieces of data" meant a complete understanding of the pandemic's origins could not be established.