After announcements this week that 15 cases were locally transmitted in the Miami area and that over 40 U.S. soldiers contracted the virus overseas, he said his administration was taking the matter “extremely seriously”. “Since then, at least 15 Americans have gotten infected in the Miami area…”
Advertisement
“Congress needs to do its job. Now the money we need to fight Zika is running out”.
In February, the President requested $1.9 billion to combat the Zika virus.
Mr Obama spoke to reporters at the Pentagon, where he said the U.S. government is taking the news of 15 cases of Zika being locally transmitted in Florida “extremely seriously”. “In other words, your Administration has not used all available tools to protect our constituents and the American People from the threat of the Zika virus”, the Texas Republican delegation wrote.
Now, the largest threat to pregnant women and their babies since the 1964 rubella epidemic has landed with both feet, and emergency funds from the CDC will soon run out.
Once again, we are reminded why Congress’s approval rating is somewhere below that of head lice (11 percent, if you’re keeping track) because its leaders take summer vacation while a pandemic is stirring.
The Zika bill that was in the works in Congress failed in mid-July after Republicans added a string of extraneous provisions, including restrictions on contraception, a pro-Confederate flag item, and cuts to Obamacare.
A McConnell spokesman told STAT earlier this week, when asked about the prospects for a special session, that the GOP-negotiated bill could potentially be passed quickly if Democrats dropped their opposition. Republicans have said repeatedly that they will not return from their break to fix the measure, and say it’s Democrats’ fault for objecting to the riders.
Obama seemed to recognize the intransigence, and appealed to voters to lean on their representatives.
Advertisement
“As our public health experts have been warning for some time, we are now seeing the first locally transmitted cases of the Zika virus by mosquitoes in the continental United States”, Mr Obama said.
