This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virus particles, left, and spherical immature particles, right.(Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner / CDC via AP)

Has like the United States has hit a COVID- 19 plateau?

Health experts say the current status of the coronavirus is a dramatic improvement compared to last winter, when there were four times as many hospitalizations and nearly six times as many deaths at the peak of the first Omicron wave.

Meanwhile, monkeypox continues to spread across the globe. Last week U.S. Health and Human Services declared Mmonkeypox a public health emergency in America.

As of yesterday 9,492 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with monkeypox, including eight in Idaho, and 600,000 doses of the vaccine have gone out to states. However, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says as many as 1.7 million people may be at high risk for contracting monkeypox. So, as NPR reports, federal officials are stretching the supply of the vaccine as much as possible.

Joining Idaho Matters to answer your questions about COVID-19 and monkeypox is Dr. David Pate, former CEO of St. Luke's Health System and a current member of the Idaho Coronavirus Task Force.