How to obtain vaccine
JYNNEOS vaccine is available to individuals who live or work in Massachusetts and meet the CDC’s eligibility criteria. See above for eligibility details.
Administration of JYNNEOS is available at any one of the designated health care locations listed below. Healthcare providers are responsible to perform exposure assessment to confirm eligibility prior to scheduling an appointment for a vaccine. Vaccination sites designated below may also offer vaccination on a walk-in basis (no appointment required).
Please contact sites first to confirm that walk-in vaccinations are offered.
Vaccine appointments are available from these clinics:
Eligibility
As of October 3, 2022, vaccination will be available to individuals who live or work in Massachusetts and meet the CDC’s current eligibility criteria, which have recently expanded to include individuals at potential risk for mpox in addition to those with possible recent exposure to an individual with mpox.
Persons eligible for post-exposure vaccination (PEP) include:
- People who had known or suspected exposure to someone with mpox
- People who had a sex partner in the past 2 weeks who was diagnosed with mpox
In addition, CDC now allows for pre-exposure vaccination (PrEP) of persons at risk for mpox which includes:
- Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, and transgender or nonbinary people (including adolescents who fall into any of these categories) who, in the past 6 months, have had:
- A new diagnosis of one or more sexually transmitted diseases (e.g., chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis); or
- More than one sex partner.
- People who have had any of the following in the past 6 months:
- Sex at a commercial sex venue; or,
- Sex in association with a large public event in a geographic area where mpox transmission is occurring.
- Sex in exchange for money or other items
- People who are sexual partners of people with the above risks.
- People who anticipate experiencing any of the above scenarios.
- People with HIV infection or other causes of immunosuppression who have had recent or anticipate potential mpox exposure.
- People who work in settings where they may be exposed to mpox:
- People who work with orthopoxviruses in a laboratory
When an individual at risk requests vaccine, they will not be asked which of these criteria applies. It is sufficient to say that they consider themselves to be at risk for mpox.
Information for health care providers
Visit information for health care providers for details on smallpox/mpox vaccine (JYNNEOS™) administration, eligibility, and availability in Massachusetts.
About the JYNNEOS vaccine
When properly administered before or soon after exposure, vaccines can help protect against mpox illness.
The vaccine most commonly used for preventing mpox infection is JYNNEOS (also known as Imvamune or Imvanex) which has been licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In the United States, there is now ample supply of JYNNEOS, being solely distributed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Massachusetts has received several allocations of JYNNEOS from the CDC since the beginning of the outbreak in 2022, and has made those doses available to provider sites across the State.
On August 9, 2022, CDC and FDA released an EUA (Emergency Use Authorization) allowing an alternative dose vaccination regimen in people 18 years and over and allowing the use of the JYNNEOS vaccine in individuals younger than 18 years.
The original JYNNEOS approval included the use of two 0.5 mL doses administered subcutaneously (under the skin). The alternative regimen allows the use of two lower doses, 0.1 mL of vaccine administered intradermally (into the skin). Providers administering JYNNEOS vaccine should begin utilizing this alternative dose vaccination regimen as of August 18, 2022.
People who get vaccinated should continue to protect themselves from infection by avoiding close, skin-to-skin contact, including intimate contact, with someone who has mpox.
Data on JYNNEOS can be found on the CDC website.
The CDC has also made available the live replicating smallpox vaccine ACAM2000. However, this vaccine has a number of characteristics that may make it unsuitable for use in the current context, including considerably greater risk to the recipient compared with JYNNEOS. Data on ACAM2000 can be found on the CDC website.