With the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention reporting a growing number of the Zika virus in the United States, President Obama yesterday shifted $81 million from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to continue funding for a vaccine to quell the mosquito-born disease.
But that didn’t stop the partisan bickering in Congress between U.S. Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Dan Donovan (Southern Brooklyn, Staten Island) as reported earlier this week in KCP.
The latest row is centered around HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell saying she transfer money from biomedical research, and antipoverty and health care programs to pay for the development of the vaccine instead of Congress passing a $1.9 billion emergency bill to help fight Zika.
“It is deeply regrettable that because Congressional Republicans have chosen to pander to the hard right-wing by insisting on extreme, unnecessary demands and playing politics on women’s health care, the Administration has been forced to take the drastic measure of pulling vital funds from programs to find cures for deadly cancers, HIV/AIDs and diabetes, as well as funding to treat substance abuse and mental health conditions and help keep low-income children and families cool in the scorching hot summer months,” said Schumer in a joint letter with other Senate Democratic Leaders including Harry Reid, Dick Durbin and Patty Murray.
“Congressional Republicans should stop catering to the hard right and immediately cancel this seven week recess – the longest in 60 years – and pass clean emergency funding legislation to address the growing Zika crisis and to restore funding for these other critical health needs,” he added.
But Donovan, who has argued since last month that the money should be transferred from other allocations within the executive branch, issued a statement hailing Obama’s decision.
“I’m glad the Obama Administration finally heeded the common-sense requests from me and other members of Congress to reallocate existing funds to Zika research and response,” said Donovan. “It’s disappointing it took this long. Frankly, expecting mothers don’t care that it’s an election year. Hopefully we can now move forward together and tackle this crisis head-on.”
The Zika virus usually produces only mild symptoms – including a fever, rash and pink eye – in adults. However, it can cause serious birth defects from a pregnant women carrying the virus including babies being born with an abnormally small heads and, in most cases, abnormal brain development.
According to the CDC, doctors have diagnosed Zika in 1,825 people in the continental U.S., including 479 pregnant women.
