"This plan from congressional Republicans is four months late and nearly a billion dollars short of what our public health experts have said is necessary to do everything possible to fight the Zika virus, and steals funding from other health priorities." —White House press secretary Josh Earnest
Republican Speaker Paul Ryan and his GOP “pro-life” Congress are anything but pro-life. He is currently reeling from the comeuppance that the Democratic Party sit-in and the media has unleashed on him due to his refusal to hold a vote on a law to prevent terrorists and other psychopaths from massacring Americans with assault weapons.
That is not the only criticism of Paul’s seemingly pro-death stances that he fights for. He has denied half the critical funding that the Centers for Disease Control have stated unequivocally that they need to prevent and research the vector borne illness Zika. This virus, spread by mosquitos, causes serious complications for unborn children ranging from hearing and eye defects to microcephaly—abnormally small heads—and other severe fetal development brain defects.
The House approved a funding deal that had been agreed to on Wednesday by Republicans from both the House and Senate. But the bill's future was uncertain in the Senate, where the Democratic minority has more power to stop legislation, and Democratic leader Harry Reid has declared his opposition.
"It is a responsible plan that assures the administration will continue to have the needed resources to protect the public," Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said. Republicans said the deal included funding for fiscal years 2016 and 2017.
For months on end, Democrats and Health officials have urged the GOP to agree on funding the CDC quickly. Instead of providing the funds that the CDC requested, the GOP has decided to rob Peter in order to pay Paul.
House Democrats said they could not go along with the deal because of $750 million in budget cuts elsewhere that the Republicans want to use to pay for the Zika spending.
Senate Democrats also voiced displeasure, clouding the outlook for it passing.
"A narrowly partisan proposal that cuts off women's access to birth control, shortchanges veterans and rescinds Obamacare funds to cover the cost is not a serious response to the threat from the Zika virus," Reid said.
Umea University reports on the Zika threat in Southern Europe. In the United States, the Gulf Coast states are at greatest risk.
[2016-06-10] Established Aedes-mosquito population could spread the Zika virus in Europe this summer if infected travelers introduce the virus. An analysis of temperatures, vectorial capacity, basic reproductive number (R0), and air traveler flows suggests parts of Southern Europe may be at risk for Zika outbreaks between June and August. This according to a study, led by Umeå University researchers and published in the journal EBioMedicine.
We know warm climates create the kind of conditions suitable for mosquito-borne illnesses to spread,” says Joacim Rocklöv, researcher at Umeå University’s Unit for Epidemiology and Global Health and co-author of the article.
“Vectorial capacity depends on a number of parameters but in general, warmer temperatures increase the rate in which the female mosquitos bite, the mosquito virus reproduction, and their virus transmission risk. The presence of established Aedes mosquito populations, the warmer climate and the coinciding peak flow of air travelers into Europe, is a triage making Southern Europe fertile ground for Zika.”
Dominican Republic. Image credit: The Government of the Dominican RepublicHealth warnings have been issued from the United Nations urging Zika-affected nations to allow women access to contraception and abortion to deal with the virus’s birth defects.
In November 2015, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) issued an alert about the Zika virus in Latin America, following which several countries issued health advisory warnings, including urging women to avoid pregnancy.
The findings showed that amongs all of the countries that had issued health warnings about Zika, the number of requests for abortion doubled in Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuala as well as increased by over a third in most of the other countries.
In countries that had issued no health warnings, there was no statistically significant increase.
However, in many of these countries, abortion is either illegal or highly restricted, leaving pregnant women with few options and potentially driving women to use unsafe methods, access abortion drugs without medical supervision or visit underground providers, said the paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine