Officials said people who received a single dose of the vaccine were substantially less likely to get infected than those who did not, but the study came with major limitations.

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By Noah Weiland

WASHINGTON — Americans who received a single dose of the monkeypox vaccine were significantly less likely to be infected by the virus over the summer than those who did not, according to a study published on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that offered a limited glimpse of the shot’s protectiveness.

The findings, gleaned from 32 states between the end of July and early September, were some of the first federal data that suggested how well the Jynneos vaccine, the main shot being used to respond to the monkeypox outbreak, prevents infections. Unvaccinated people were 14 times as likely to be infected as those who received an initial shot, the research showed.

“These new data provide us with a level of cautious optimism that the vaccine is working as intended,” Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the C.D.C. director, said at a White House briefing, adding that “even one dose of the monkeypox vaccine offers at least some initial protection against infection.”

Though monkeypox cases have declined in recent weeks, the release of the data appeared to serve in part as an effort to reinvigorate the inoculation campaign and as a prompt to the hundreds of thousands of Americans at high risk who still have not been vaccinated.

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