Although Africa is the only place where mpox is endemic, the continent currently relies on vaccines shipped in from abroad to stop the spread. Carolyn Beeler speaks to Helen Rees, a global health expert and the co-chair of the National Department Mpox Incident Management Team overseeing South Africa’s mpox response about what the COVID-19 pandemic taught us about making vaccines available where they’re needed — and why those lessons aren’t consistently being implemented now.