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House Passes $622M For Zika Funding, But CDC Says 'It's Just Not Enough'
House Republicans on Wednesday pushed through a $622 million bill to battle the Zika virus, setting up challenging negotiations with the Senate and the White House. The 241-184 House vote broke mostly along party lines as Democrats lined up in opposition, heeding a White House veto threat and a warning from a top government health official that the bill wouldnt do enough to respond to the growing threat from Zika. Its just not enough, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said of the House measure. (5/19)
House Republicans on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a $622 million bill to combat the Zika virus, creating a pot of funds about one-third the size requested by the White House. All but four Republicans who cast votes were in favor of the bill, which funds federal research, prevention and treatment efforts for the next six months. (Ferris, 5/18)
Democrats and the White House have been hammering at Republicans for dragging their feet on Zika, but the political tempest in Washington hasn't been matched by fear among the public, at least according to recent polling. GOP leaders see a political imperative to act as the summer mosquito season heats up. The House bill, however, provides one-third of the request and limits the use of the money to the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30. It cuts funds provided in 2014 to fight Ebola to help offset the additional Zika money. (5/19)
A group of Democrats is objecting to the Houses bill funding a response to the Zika virus in part because it continues restrictions on federal funding for abortions. (Sullivan, 5/18)
The man who led the successful White House response to the Ebola outbreak says the Zika virus is a slow-motion public health disaster and Congress is to blame. Ron Klain, who served as White House Ebola czar and as Vice President Joe Bidens chief of staff, told POLITICO's Pulse Check podcast that Congress has failed to heed the lessons of the Ebola epidemic and that the Zika funding battle has become unforgivably partisan in the face of such dire human costs, including severe brain defects in infants. The babies being born are neither Democrats or Republicans, he said. They're babies. (Diamond, 5/18)
Earlier, related KHN coverage: (Luthra, updated 5/19)
Meanwhile, outlets report on other developments from the outbreak
When an outbreak strikes, the Epidemic Intelligence Service is the calvary. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ships this branch to the front lines, where they investigate the causes and set up defenses. (Akpan, 5/18)
With the rainy season about to arrive and 45 confirmed Zika cases this year, more than any other county in Florida, Miami-Dade commissioners will consider changing the countys legal code on Tuesday to empower mosquito control workers during public health emergencies to act within two days instead of the current five to clear empty containers and other breeding grounds for the disease-spreading insects when located on private property. Speaking on the lawn of Miami-Dades government center, Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the countys Zika preparedness plans rely as much or more on residents cooperation as they do on spraying and surveillance efforts. (Chang, 5/18)
A Wisconsin woman has the first confirmed case of the Zika virus in the state, the Department of Health Services said Wednesday. The woman recently traveled to Honduras, where mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus are present. There have been no locally acquired cases of the Zika virus infection in Wisconsin or in the continental United States, the department said in a news release. (Stephenson, 5/18)
"Careful" describes the approach many women in the South say theyre taking as mosquito season starts up in the region. The CDC has linked Zika to microcephaly, a birth defect where babies are born with smaller heads and smaller brains that dont develop properly. The World Health Organization says as of the middle of May 2016, more than 1,300 cases of microcephaly and other neurological disorders believed to be Zika-related had been reported from nine countries, including the U.S. Georgia has seen 13 Zika cases so far, all of them in people who have traveled to one of the 55 countries where the WHO says Zika is active. None of the cases were in pregnant women. (Eloy, 5/19)
