obama pledged 589 million of ebola funds to zika...Well where is it???

[tyroneweaver]

Apparently only 189 million has been used. So barry where;s the money


Texans Question Obama on Unspent Zika Funds

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/health/zika-virus-budget-ebola.html

VERIFIED: House Zika Proposal Allocates Targeted Resources, Is Fully Paid For

 

[waltky]

Which war do we fight - war on zika or war on terrorism?...

Fund Zika Research by ‘Cutting Back on Investments Made to Our Military Infrastructure’
August 12, 2016 -- Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) told CNSNews.com that the U.S. should be “cutting back on investments made to our military infrastructure” to fund research to combat the Zika virus.

Carson made the remarks following a press conference on Capitol Hill Thursday in which House Democratic leaders expressed frustration with what they characterized as Republicans’ failure to act against the virus during the August congressional recess. A bill put forward by the GOP in June to allocate $1.1 billion for Zika research was blocked by Democrats in the Senate because it restricted funding to Planned Parenthood in Puerto Rico and relaxed restrictions on pesticide spraying. The bill also came with spending cuts to compensate for its price tag.

However, during their press conference, House Democratic leaders blamed Republicans for the lack of Zika funding. “The money is running out and our public health officials cannot combat this virus without additional funding,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). But when CNSNews.com asked Carson how the Democrats planned to pay for their anti-Zika campaign without cannibalizing other research programs, he suggested cutting military spending. “I think that there’s an effective argument that has been pushed forward about reining-in our deficit and cutting back on excessive spending. And a lot of that can be done through cutting back on investments made to our military infrastructure and our war efforts,” Carson said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 1,962 reported cases of Zika in the U.S. as of August 10th. Only six of those cases were “locally acquired mosquito-borne cases.” “But I think we need to have an honest conversation about what taxation looks like. We need to have an honest conversation, some people talk about entitlement reforms,” Carson also told CNSNews. “But also, I think that for us to be wedded to the European-style austerity cuts is a big mistake. You don’t make these kinds of deep cuts during a time of economic recovery. That is what my Republican colleagues are pushing, and I don’t think that that kind of push is healthy for our country, nor is it healthy for their constituents,” he continued. "So you don't believe that reducing taxes on the rich will result in job creation through...?" CNSNews asked. “Across the board, I do not," Carson replied. "You know, some say: ‘Well, many wealthy people help create jobs because of their businesses.’ But I don’t think that a persuasive argument has been made in that regard,” he said.

Rep. Carson: Fund Zika Research by ‘Cutting Back on Investments Made to Our Military Infrastructure’

See also:

Senate Democrats Block GOP’s Zika Funding Bill
June 28, 2016 | WASHINGTON (AP) — A dysfunctional Senate split along party lines on Tuesday and left a $1.1 billion proposal to fight the Zika virus in limbo, despite growing fears and a more than 800 cases of Zika infection in the continental U.S.

Democrats blocked the GOP-drafted measure by a 52-48 vote Tuesday — short of the 60 votes required to advance it. The party faulted Republicans for packing the bill with provisions designed to deny new funding for Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico and ease rules on pesticide spraying. What happens next is unclear. Neither side is looking forward to leaving Washington next month for a seven-week vacation without having acted to address the health threat, but hard feelings seemed to harden in the immediate aftermath of the vote, leaving any path forward in doubt. Zika is spread mainly by a tropical mosquito and is causing an epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean. The virus can cause horrible birth defects and is likely to spread further this summer. So far, there's been no transmission by mosquitoes in the continental U.S. The more than 800 cases include almost 300 pregnant women at risk of delivering children with severe deformities.

Democrats pressed to resume negotiations while Republicans insisted, for now at least, that the measure negotiated by House and Senate Republicans is the best the Obama administration is going to get. The administration had requested $1.9 billion in emergency funds in February. "There's not going to be another opportunity to deal with this in the near future," promised No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn of Texas. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., insisted that it was impossible to reopen the House-Senate agreement or begin new talks. "The negotiations have already occurred," McConnell told reporters. "I would say to my Democratic friends there are some disadvantages to not being in the majority. You don't get everything exactly the way you want." The White House has threatened to veto the legislation.

The House-Senate measure matches the $1.1 billion measure that passed the Senate last month on a sweeping vote, but Democrats oppose a handful of provisions designed to mollify GOP conservatives in the House and the attachment of companion spending cuts to defray its cost. Democrats particularly oppose a provision that restricts the use of $95 million worth of federal grants to provide services such as birth control to women in Puerto Rico threatened by the virus. Democrats charged that the restrictions were targeted at Planned Parenthood, a group loathed by many anti-abortion Republicans. In addition to the limits on Planned Parenthood, the bill would temporarily lift Clean Water Act permitting requirements on pesticide spraying for municipalities and other large-scale users. Even as Democrats pressed for compromise, they crowed that Republicans would soon reconsider. "They come back with their tail between their legs saying 'Let's pass something,'" said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Zika `skeeters in Miami!...

Zika Virus Reportedly Found in Popular Florida Tourist Location
August 18, 2016 - Two cases of the Zika virus have been identified in Miami Beach, one of the world's most popular tourist spots, U.S. media reported Thursday.

The mosquito-borne virus, first detected in Brazil last year, is relatively mild in most cases. However, pregnant women who are infected with Zika risk giving birth to babies with a congenital defect called microcephaly, which causes an abnormally small head and developmental problems. The first local transmission of the Zika virus in the United States was detected in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, in the southern state of Florida, earlier this month.

An inspector with the Miami-Dade County mosquito control department, looks for standing water as he inspects an empty lot, Aug. 2, 2016, in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, Florida.​

Florida's Department of Health said there are 35 cases of likely local transmission in the state, including the two new cases that were identified Thursday outside of the Wynwood neighborhood. Miami Beach officials were not available to comment, although The Miami Herald reported Thursday that Miami Beach officials were sent to the area to inspect for mosquito breeding sites. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention referred calls by Reuters to state health officials.

The spread of the virus is alarming for the hospitality industry in South Florida, which is a huge tourist destination. In 2015, the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau said 15.5 million people spent at least one night in the Greater Miami area and generated nearly $24.4 billion in revenue. Of those visitors, 48 percent stayed in Miami Beach, the bureau said.

Zika Virus Reportedly Found in Popular Florida Tourist Location

See also:

New Research: Zika Could Also Affect Adult Brain
August 18, 2016 - The Zika virus, which U.S. health officials have determined threaten fetal brain development, also could pose risks to adult brains – and not just those of infected pregnant women.

New research, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell on Thursday, suggests the virus may damage cells that affect adults’ memory and learning. In experiments with mice, researchers at New York’s Rockefeller University and California’s La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology focused on neural progenitor cells. These cells, developing early in gestation, eventually specialize and become neural cells. "With the capability to replenish the brain’s neurons throughout its lifetime, these are the stem cells of the brain," the university explained in a news release on the findings.

It’s thought that Zika attacks a fetus’ progenitor cells; the death of such cells stunts brain development and growth. A small head is the hallmark of microcephaly, among the possible brain defects. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned this spring that the mosquito-borne virus "is a cause of microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects." Scientists believe progenitor cells in adults have developed some resistance to Zika. That explains why most infected adults exhibit few signs – and those who do generally have only brief, mild flu-like symptoms. Adults’ fully developed brains have only niches of progenitor cells, including in the hippocampus, the center of learning and memory.

Like baby, like parent

The researchers had a hunch that if Zika affects the brains of developing infants, it also could affect adults. They tested their theory on mice whose brains had been engineered to mimic Zika infection in humans. In mice, progenitor cells concentrate in two areas of the brain. Researchers found that more cells in those areas were dying and fewer cells were being regenerated. "It was very clear that the virus wasn't affecting the whole brain evenly," said Joseph Gleeson, who leads Rockefeller’s Laboratory of Pediatric Brain Research. "In the adult, it's only these two populations that are very specific to the stem cells that are affected by virus." Sujan Shresta, a La Jolla professor, said the research suggests Zika is causing greater harm than previously thought. The complex disease is “catastrophic for early brain development,” she said, “yet the majority of adults who are infected with Zika rarely show detectable symptoms. Its effect on the adult brain may be more subtle, and now we know what to look for."

More research needed

Gleeson said that while most adults seem able to overcome Zika’s effects, people with compromised immune systems could be more vulnerable. "In more subtle cases, the virus could theoretically impact long-term memory or risk of depression," he said. The Zika virus also has been linked to the rare Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune disorder of the nervous system. It can cause temporary paralysis in children and adults. Dr. Daniel Pastula, a neurologist and medical epidemiologist at the University of Colorado Denver, was more guarded about the study’s findings. "It's really unclear if this translates to human Zika infections," he told the Reuters news service. And, if so, how long does the effect persist? Gleeson said the study would need to be replicated as part of ongoing Zika research.

New Research: Zika Could Also Affect Adult Brain

Related:

Haiti Finds Case of Microcephaly Linked to Zika Virus
August 17, 2016 — Haiti has identified its first case of the birth defect microcephaly linked to the Zika virus, a senior health ministry official said on Tuesday.

Gabriel Thimothe, director general at the ministry of public health and population, said the case was confirmed on Saturday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Haiti has confirmed 14 cases of the birth defect since March, up from previous reports of two cases, Raymond Grand Pierre, the director of the Department of Health and Family in the Ministry of Health, said.In the other 13 cases, authorities have not established a link to microcephaly although the number may indicate Zika is more widespread in Haiti than previously thought. According to a chart provided by the Centers for Disease Control, Haiti has recorded nearly 3,000 Zika cases.

But the World Health Organization says the overwhelming majority of cases of the virus in the island nation are suspected and not confirmed. Thimothe said the baby with Zika-linked microcephaly was born in the city of Mirebalais earlier this summer. Boston-based Partners in Health and its sister organisation, Haiti-based Zanmi Lasante, said in a statement on Aug. 9 that two babies had been born with microcephaly in their University Hospital Mirebalais. U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly. The World Health

Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis. The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,600 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.

Haiti's healthcare system is still suffering from the fallout of the 2010 earthquake that killed about 300,000 people and a still-ongoing cholera epidemic that began shortly afterward, killing about 8,600 people and infecting 707,000. Health facilities were also paralyzed this year by a months-long strike by medical residents over pay and working conditions, which Thimothe said had largely ended.

Haiti Finds Case of Microcephaly Linked to Zika Virus

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - dem politicians done frittered away all our money...

CDC ‘essentially out of money’ to fight Zika, director warns
Saturday 10th September, 2016 - The head of the government’s fight against the Zika virus says that “we are now essentially out of money” and warns that the country is “about to see a bunch of kids born with microcephaly” in the coming months.

Friday’s warning from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden came as lawmakers start to sort out a stopgap government funding bill that is being targeted to also carry long-delayed money to battle Zika. Zika is spreading more widely in the U.S. and can not only cause microcephaly — in which babies are born with grave brain defects — but other problems that the country will face for decades. Frieden said funding delays have slowed long-term studies of the disease and production of new tests for it. “We haven’t been able to get a running start” on a long-term battle against Zika, he said.

Frieden said that “we don’t like to see” the use of pesticides such as Friday morning’s spraying of naled, in Miami Beach, but added that new technologies for the application of such toxic chemicals are safe for humans. Freiden said that the two localized mosquito-borne outbreaks in Miami are “quite difficult to control,” adding that the mosquitoes that spread Zika “are the cockroach of mosquitoes.” President Barack Obama in February requested $1.9 billion to battle Zika, but Republicans controlling Congress acted slowly on the request. A Capitol Hill fight this summer stalled the Zika aid. Republicans attached restrictions on any of the money going to affiliates of Planned Parenthood in Puerto Rico. Democrats objected and blocked the $1.1 billion bill.

Since then, Zika has spread more widely, and frustration is mounting from lawmakers representing affected areas. “Look if we don’t, then fire all of us,” said Florida GOP Rep. David Jolly, whose state is bearing the brunt of the disease in the continental U.S. “If we can’t get Zika funding by the end of September then we’re nothing but a bunch of idiots up here.” Now, negotiations are underway to break the impasse over Zika and add it to the only piece of legislation that has to pass Congress before the election: A stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown on Oct. 1. A bipartisan consensus is emerging to fund the government through mid-December, though some House tea party conservatives are opposed and want a longer duration for the measure to avert a lame duck session of Congress.

CDC ‘essentially out of money’ to fight Zika, director warns

 

[waltky]

Zika Funding Delay Hurt Effort to Fight Virus...

US Health Officials: Zika Funding Delay Hurt Effort to Fight Virus
October 03, 2016 - Top U.S. health officials said on Monday the long delay in getting Congress to approve funding to fight the Zika virus came at a heavy cost in dealing with what they called a serious public health threat.

They said the $1.1 billion in newly approved funding for Zika would be used to expand mosquito control programs, accelerate vaccine development, and begin important studies of its effect on babies and children born to mothers infected during pregnancy. President Barack Obama in February requested $1.9 billion in emergency Zika funding. After months of political wrangling, Congress last week finally approved a little more than half of that to fight the virus. "Because we've had to wait these seven months, we haven't been able to get a running start on some of the critically important studies to understand more fully the impacts of Zika, to establish better diagnostic tests, to improve our way of controlling mosquitoes," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adding that vaccine development efforts were also delayed.

Wearing a homemade mosquito costume, an expectant father from Washington who asked not to be named, protests the lack of Congressional approval to fund a federal response to the Zika virus​

Health officials on a conference call with reporters also said money they had redirected from other efforts, such as for Ebola and cancer research, was unlikely to be reimbursed. "There's a cost to protecting Americans from the dollars that were reprogrammed," Frieden said. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell promised that the new funds would be allocated quickly. But she said critical time and energy were spent on working to get the funding instead of working to use it. "That money would be out the door if we had received it at the time we asked for it," Burwell said.

An inspector with the Miami-Dade County mosquito control department, looks for standing water as he inspects an empty lot in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, Florida​

Asked for examples of what would not be funded or would be underfunded because Congress approved $800 million less than what was requested, Burwell pointed to hard-hit Puerto Rico. She said $141 million would be earmarked for Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories out of $271 million that had been requested. There are more than 25,000 cases of the mosquito-borne virus in the United States and its territories, including more than 2,300 involving pregnant women. Most of the cases are in Puerto Rico, but there is a limited active outbreak in Miami. The virus, which can also be transmitted through sex with an infected person, has been linked to a variety of serious birth defects, including microcephaly and severe brain abnormalities.

US Health Officials: Zika Funding Delay Hurt Effort to Fight Virus

 

[tyroneweaver]

I bet that money went to illegally fund ACA exchanges that are going broke.

 

[washamericom]

maybe the $$ went to iran, or syria's chemical program.