The administration is concerned that without further funding from Congress, vital anti-Zika initiatives, like mosquito control and transmission education, will go unfunded.
Advertisement
On Wednesday, after a two-month-long impasse, the White House announced that $510 million of the $2.7 billion earmarked to battle Ebola would be transferred to the Zika fight.
In the House, Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers of Kentucky and two other top Republican appropriators said they “will look carefully at the details of today’s proposal by the administration to ensure the best and most effective use of these funds” and “to monitor the changing needs resulting from this unpredictable crisis”.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said that without the requested emergency funding, opposed by some key congressional Republicans, the United States risks its ability to respond to the Zika virus.
Yesterday’s move came after the Republican-controlled Congress has not moved on the request of US President Barack Obama to provide it with United States dollars 1.9 billion for activities that scientists and experts say are critically important to combating Zika. Pressure mounted earlier this year to use Ebola funds as news reports on the spread of Zika captured public attention and the Ebola outbreak entered its final stages.
The administration expects to send 75% of the $600 million to the Center for Disease Control. Vaccine trials that could begin later this year would stall without money.
“We need congress to step up to the plate and not do something controversial, not do something that guarantees anyone a political victory, but to do something that would make the American people safer from a virus that targets pregnant women, and their newborn babies”, said Earnest.
On Wednesday he praised the White House’s move.
“At some point, later this spring or maybe later this summer, all of you and your news organizations are going to be sounding the alarm about the significant threat that is posed by the Zika virus”, Earnest said. Additional Zika money could inflame that fight.
Congress approved about $5 billion in 2014 to combat Ebola.
But the administration’s request faces a tough time on Capitol Hill, where GOP leaders are already struggling to pass a fiscal 2017 budget amid a conservative rebellion over higher spending levels. That’s concerning, because while the public panic over Ebola has faded, the virus continues to flare up. For months, the region has experienced sporadic cases, showing that Ebola is not completely gone. “… We are closing in on the concept of the direct connection with Zika and microcephaly, but there are many unknowns”.
Also, travelers returning from countries with Zika transmission should take protective measures to avoid mosquito bites in the state to avoid transmitting the Zika virus to local mosquitoes.
Both patients were infected last month, the Vietnamese agency said.
Advertisement
“We want people to be aware of but not afraid of (the virus)”, he said.
