U.S. media has criticized the country for failing to contain the monkeypox although it had been expected to have a better handle of another spreading disease after COVID-19 raged the nation.

The Atlantic pointed out, the country should be able to handle the virus as it is a known entity and there are existing tests and stockpiled vaccines, compared to COVID-19.

"If there was one virus that would lend itself to containment," says Boghuma Kabisen Titanji, a virologist and infectious-disease physician at Emory University, this should have been it, The Atlantic reported.

However, U.S. ranked the first among countries with the most confirmed monkeypox cases two months later. The Atlantic said "the country's capacity to deal with infectious disease may be even worse than it was at the start of 2020."

It said "although the U.S. might have once seemed like one of the nations best equipped to stop and prevent outbreaks, it is, in actuality, one of the best at squandering its potential instead."

The obstacles to preparedness are "systemic, at every level of government, rather than because of any one individual or agency," Dr. Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at the University of California and other experts said, according to New York Times.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the monkeypox outbreak are quite different, but the early responses have exposed similar and disturbing shortcomings, reported The Washington Post (WP).

"Vaccines in short supply. Long lines at clinics. Case numbers going up every day. A spreading public dread, fear and suspicion. The government announcing everything is under control – but it isn't," said WP.

Unlike the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, effective vaccines exist against monkeypox, but the one that is most suitable, the two-dose Jynneos, has been in short supply, largely due to a manufacturing bottleneck, and will probably remain so for months, according to the WP report.

The government authorized a new infection method in early August to stretch the nation's limited supply of monkeypox by splitting doses to cover five times as many people. However, the vaccine's manufacturer responded to the new approach accusing the Biden administration of breaching its contracts with his company by planning to use the doses in an unapproved manner. The drug maker also threatened to cancel all future vaccine orders from the U.S., throwing into doubt the administration's entire monkeypox strategy.

"People are begging for monkeypox vaccines, and we've just pissed off the one manufacturer," said one official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, according to WP.

The situation would require at least 329,000 doses of monkeypox vaccines, which is almost all of the 336,710 doses the government had shipped as of July 29. The total highest-risk, vulnerable population may be even higher, estimated at up to 1.7 million by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it said.

"The virus is also spreading fast and it may well be too late to contain it," it added, noting that the recent declarations of emergency by the Joe Biden administration and the World Health Organization underscore that the crisis is nowhere near resolution.

(With input from Xinhua)