Monkeypox won't bring the death and suffering COVID did, but public health experts say it could take hold in the population without robust testing, vaccinations and communicating about the health risks.

"We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg here," said Megan Ranney, academic dean at the Brown University School of Public Health. "Many of us are concerned it could only be a matter of time before it spreads more generally,” she said

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday that it has ordered an additional 2.5 million doses of monkeypox vaccines to respond to the escalating outbreak.

The Biden administration has declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency — a move that gives officials more flexibility to tackle the virus' spread. New York, California and Illinois all declared public health emergencies related to monkeypox in the last two weeks. The World Health Organization has already declared monkeypox a global emergency.