White House Redirects $589M In Funds To Fight Zika Virus (reuters.com) 55
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.
Re: Included Spending (Score:3)
Alternative solution (Score:4, Funny)
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Worked for Madagascar.
Madagascar just needs to close it's one seaport.
Re: Big wall (Score:2)
and make the mosquitos pay for it.
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Maybe they should just build a big wall.
And make the mosquitos pay for it.
Err on the side of caution (Score:5, Informative)
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
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
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).
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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. [arstechnica.com]
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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.
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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 sum
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Yes. Exactly. This is why there are Mosquito Abatement Districts where I live not Elimination Districts.
And they do a very good job, too. Back when I was young, in the '50s, mosquitoes were quite a problem in the San Fernando Valley. If there was the slightest gap in the window screens, you'd wake up with at least four or five new bites every morning until you either patched the screen or at least made sure that window was closed at night. Now, if you get more than two or
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Take not just the money from Ebola, take the lesson: don't let something this virulent get away from us.
except Ebola virus was extremely virulent and deadly whereas the Zika virus is neither of those.
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CDC which while being a US agency where politics are sometimes played is generally a reliable source of information on diseases. They have not made any comments to confirm that any of your listed issues are a reality. They also don't deny them. They instead say "We don't know" which I assume means "We don't know yet".
The post you responded to takes one extreme and your response takes another.
As far as I can tell, there's nothing that links the Zika virus to spontaneous abor
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It's also fairly recently believed to have been spread through sexual contact, after being thought of as primarily a mosquito borne disease.
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Take not just the money from Ebola, take the lesson: don't let something this virulent get away from us.
except Ebola virus was extremely virulent and deadly whereas the Zika virus is neither of those.
Ebola is virulent and deadly (isn't that redundant?) but it is only contagious through direct contact. It's easy to control once you're aware of it.
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A person can have the HIV virus for years before becoming symptomatic spreading it to other sexual partners. Someone with Ebola gets very sick within a week. Yes, Ebola can spread among caregivers if they're not using the proper protocols but it's easy to contain once you're aware of what it is. The only people who actually contracted it in the USA were the two nurses who were caring for Thomas Eric Duncan and they were caring for him for 2 days before they knew he had the disease. Both nurses recovered
Until one of the GOP congress critter family is .. (Score:2, Insightful)
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Why should I have to pay? (Score:1, Troll)
OK, ok, I'm trolling. But I've actually had these conversation with people. It's not usually about anything as scary as viruses. But try getting anyone to agree to national infrastructure spending. Obama almost lost the US Prez election with his "You didn't build it" comment trying to find a way to say the things you do for your fellow citize
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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 Ame
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A partly political Virus (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Facts smacts (Score:2)
"You can prove anything even remotely true with facts." Homer Simpson
These days, you can't even get two sides to agree on what the "facts" are. Each side has their own "facts" that support their position.
What will they do (Score:1)
Maybe they should wait until all the scientist are in complete agreement regarding the facts on the Zika virus. Some of them say it is something else, like Monsanto products in Brazil. This could hurt the economy and businesses. Oh, wait, that is climate change. Never mind, fund the hello out of this.