White House Redirects $589M In Funds To Fight Zika Virus (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The White House said on Wednesday it will redirect $589 million in funds to prepare for the Zika virus before the mosquito that carries it begins to emerge in the continental United States, but urged Congress to act quickly on its request for more money. Most of the $589 million will come from $2.7 billion in funds set aside for public health projects aimed at the Ebola virus. White House budget director Shaun Donovan said the use of money previously provided for fighting another health crisis, the Ebola virus, was only a temporary fix for Zika funding. Donovan said some measures to fight Zika would have to be delayed, curtailed or stopped unless the U.S. Congress approves more than $1.8 billion in emergency funds requested by the Obama administration in February. The Zika virus, linked to a growing number of cases of the birth defect microcephaly in Brazil, is spreading rapidly in Latin America and the Caribbean and heading north as the weather gets warmer.

Comments

Alternative solution

[suupaabaka]

Maybe they should just build a big wall.

Err on the side of caution

[rmdingler]

I think it's a good idea to get ahead of this outbreak instead of waiting until the tipping point was near for widespread transmission.

Take not just the money from Ebola, take the lesson: don't let something this virulent get away from us.

As of March 30, 2016 (5 am EST) Zika virus disease and Zika virus congenital infection are nationally notifiable conditions. This update from the CDC Arboviral Disease Branch includes provisional data reported to ArboNET for January 1, 2015 – March 30, 2016. US States Travel-associated Zika virus disease cases reported: 312 Locally acquired vector-borne cases reported: 0 Of the 312 cases reported, 27 were pregnant women, 6 were sexually transmitted, and 1 had Guillain-Barré syndrome US Territories Travel-associated cases reported: 3 Locally acquired cases reported: 349 Of the 352 cases reported, 37 were pregnant women and 1 had Guillain-Barré syndrome

Re:Err on the side of caution

[waTeim]

Adding; the species A. aegypti is the mosquito that carries Zika and is present in the United State mainland along the Gulf Coast and also in AZ. There is a ~3 day window after a mosquito bites someone who is infected before someone else can be infected but after that it's for the lifetime of the mosquite (total 15 days). No natively transmitted Zika has been reported in the continental US, but it is expected that 20% of the population of Puerto Rico will be infected by Zika by the end of the year.

Re:Err on the side of caution

[mspohr]

Except Ebola hasn't gone extinct. There are still new cases reported and it could break into an epidemic at any time.
Foolish Republicans won't fund both Zika and Ebola research... it's their crusade against government spending (and the poor).

Re:Err on the side of caution

[riverat1]

It's become obvious that Ebola is relatively easy to contain once you get on top of it. It can't be transmitted except by direct contact with someone who's sick with it. Zika on the other hand is carried by mosquitoes and anywhere the type of mosquitoes that can carry it are endemic it will be a threat. That includes much of the southern USA. Ars Technica had a recent story about how Zika may infect nerve cells in any age person. Link.

Re:Err on the side of caution

[tlhIngan]

Most parts of the USA that have mosquitoes also have measures in place to control and/or eliminate them, some more effective than others. I would hope that those measures would help control this, along with other mosquito born diseases.

The key word is "control". Sure the US isn't overrun with mosquitos, but you can't get rid of every single one of them because they breed wherever there's stagnant water.

And there's plenty of mosquito-borne illnesses - west nile is a common one that keeps rebounding every summer through the entire US. Doesn't help that it's carried by birds, too.

Zika requires the mosquito bite an infected human, then bit more humans later on. Given mosquitos are still pests everywhere, well, just like computer security, it only takes one.

Re: Included Spending

[gerf]

I doubt it'll go towards purchasing DDT from the few places that still use it, so this is likely for naught.

Re:Gr8. Let's help more countries outside the USA.

[LostMyBeaver]

Let me start by asking a few things :

1) What the fuck is a "Checknian"? Are you the last person on this planet which can't see a squiggly red line beneath a work or are you using Netscape 4.7 to surf the web?

2) USAians? Benjamin Franklin spend the greatest part of his life publishing a newspaper where he intentionally edited all articles to ensure that the term American referred to the people who would rise up to establish a great nation. The people of all states would stand united under this great name American. He would teach the people of the USA to identify themselves under this great common title. If for 200+ years the word American as it is currently established within the Merriam Webster American English Dictionary has propagated throughout the world to identify a citizen or resident of the United States of America, is it actually necessary to apply the stupidity of suggesting that "American might confuse someone and therefore we should clarify with the far more accurate and socially sensitive term USAian"? Mexicans, Canadians, Brazilians, etc... they all know who they are and they may tease the US about the term American, but the word is here to stay. Quit being a dick.

3) Latino Invaders? Did they establish an army and march in and invade? Latino immigrants is more accurate. First of all, not everyone is actually against them coming to America. In fact, some people welcome them and wish them the best. America was made great by immigrants. Oddly, America's greatness seemed to decline about the time we tried to make it harder for immigrants to come. Consider historically all the great accomplishments of America and you'll find that nearly every single one of them were accomplished by immigrants or first generation Americans. America does not breed greatness, it never has. America attracts greatness. Greatness comes from people giving up absolutely everything a person knows or loves and risking everything to go to a place you're not welcome... all to go somewhere you can become great... and people like you want to shoot these people at the borders.

4) Obama... here's a president which while incompetent (it's a job requirement, see previous 43 presidents) is a pretty good person. He can't go door to door placing his hand on each head and curing all the sick and feeding all the poor. What he has attempted to accomplish over the past 7 years is to tried and make people healthy enough to work and pay taxes. He has tried to allow immigrants to contribute to the system and not only consume jobs, but to create new job markets and strengthen the US economy (no it doesn't happen over night.. it takes time... it may or may not fail). He has tried to establish good relations with as many countries of the world he could. He has started tearing down national borders and boundaries and tried to make America a productive part of Earth as a whole. He has tried to limit the strength of oil nations that controlled whether you could afford to drive to work. He has tried to clean up the mess in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Syria, etc... he failed, but the important thing is, he tried and it doesn't really matter who got stuck with that, there was/is no good answer there. But like Bush (pick one), Clinton, Reagan, etc... he's a good person. He tried, no matter how much people like you hated him to go to work each day and make America and the world as a whole a better place... just like his predecessors. Let's reiterate an earlier statement... quit being a dick.

5) Finally... President Putin.. yes... just like Obama and pretty much all presidents before him, Putin likes his country. Putin has made a career similar to how Obama had which would identify the illnesses of his country and try to correct them. Putin spends money on aiding and assisting their friends and neighbors all the time. This is part of being a leader of a country. Everyone who can chip in chips in.

Let me point out that when Abraham Lincoln died, (minor exaggeration coming) if anyone attended his funeral, it was to piss on his grav

A partly political Virus

[Anonymous Coward]

Some facts:
Zika has been spreading through Africa for at least 60 years now without serious consequences being observed. The typical clinical course of Zika fever is harmless. A correlation between it and microcephaly has not yet been demonstrated. The reported number of cases (Zika with microcephaly) by the Brazilian researchers who started the discussion is, contrary to the impression created in parts of the media, around 20. Microcephaly is definitely caused by infection with other viruses (e.g., rubella), alcohol abuse, and other factors in effect during pregnancy.

The reaction:
A warning about a possible risk posed by Zika during pregnency makes sense, but only in proportion to other risks. The context-free representation in some media ("OMG, new killer virus cripples masses of Babies") is probably not helpful.

My interpretation:
Zika is used as an argument for releasing genetically modified mosquitoes in Brasil as a counter measure. The risk of this measure could be more unpredictable or greater than the risk of the virus itself. Also, huge amounts of money are about to be moved as seen here. Therefore, I wonder if perhaps other motivations are involved. Moreover, parts of the political class of Brazil are currently grateful for any type of distraction: the government has proven to be corrupt and is about to be replaced by an opposition which is even more corrupt. So it's probably a good thing to keep the public occupied with other things.