By Grant Smith, Domestic News Writer
Senate Democrats of the United States Congress have once again blocked a bill that would allocate $1.1 billion toward the fight against Zika; meanwhile, over 2,700 cases of the disease have been reported within the United States, primarily on the eastern seaboard. According to the BBC, the bill was defeated for the third time on Tuesday, September 6, after a seven week congressional recess and previous defeats in both June and July.
The legislation in question was drafted in response to a warning from the Center for Disease Control that the health institute was imminently running out of its previously allocated twenty-two million dollars to fight the spread of the disease. Even so, three months have passed without a congressional resolution.
Since the discovery of the Zika virus in 1947, indigenous to the Zika Forest in Uganda, has only had fourteen reported cases, all within the subtropical regions of Africa and Asia. That is, until an outbreak in the Yap Islands of Micronesia back in 2007 as reported by the World Health Organization. The impetus of the most current outbreak was in Brazil in April of 2015, following an eight-year migratory pattern across the Pacific Ocean and soon spreading throughout the Americas. It is for these reasons that the CDC’s medical apparatus in combatting the disease has been in such dire need of funding, documenting and classifying the previously foreign disease.
The disease has been found to be transferred from pregnant women to her child and can lead to microcephaly, severe brain malformations, and other serious birth defects. Recently, it has been found to cause symptoms similar to multiple sclerosis in adult patients.
Planned Parenthood, a topic of disagreement between the parties during the primary season, is at the center of the debate; Republicans drafting of the bill restricts the dispersal of funds to fight the disease from being given to the oft-debated organization. Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), responded to the blockage by stating, “It’s hard to explain why, despite their own calls for funding, Democrats would block plans to keep women and babies safe from Zika.”
Democrats however, have defended the need for Planned Parenthood in helping to contain the disease by pointing out that the disease can be sexually transmitted and that the organization disperses STI-preventative birth control while providing other essential health services that could be vital in the struggle against Zika.
Despite these troubling findings and the CDC’s stated lack of funds, the legislation met its now familiar end this week. While congressional chambers have long devolved into the meeting house of interposition and nullification, the inability to pass fundamental funding legislation for Zika has fielded dissatisfaction to both sides of the aisle.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) stated that, “Republicans are more interested in attacking Planned Parenthood than protecting women and babies from this awful virus.” As McConnell and Reid echo each other’s disappointment at the first case of sexual transmission of Zika in Pennsylvania in the same week, the CDC continues to operate in an almost depleted $22 million window.
A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, September 13th print edition.
Contact Grant at
grant.smith@student.shu.edu
The Stillman Exchange 