The monkeypox outbreak that has infected more than 6,600 people in the United States is a public health emergency, the Biden administration declared Thursday, a move that could make it easier to tap funding and wield the federal bureaucracy to combat the once-rare disease. The declaration came more than a week after the head of the World Health Organization, on July 23, said the "extraordinary” situation qualifies as a global emergency. Monkeypox is transmitted person-to-person, usually through close contact with respiratory secretions, infected skin lesions or recently contaminated objects, according to the World Health Organization.