Congress must muster up political will to act on Zika

Three weeks ago in this space, we forcefully chastised the U.S. Congress for its failure to act on a growing public health threat before skipping town on a two-month-long summer vacation. We warned of more dire consequences from the spiraling Zika virus as the summer progressed.

Sadly but not surprisingly, those dire consequences have arrived.

“Zika is here now,” declared Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last Friday.

His declaration came immediately after Florida Gov. Rick Scott and the CDC confirmed that four new cases of the disease in the Miami area almost certainly were contracted through local insect bites. Heretofore, all cases reported in the mainland United States were traced to bites in other tropical environs and through sexual contact with those who had contracted Zika elsewhere.

That development increases the urgency from our national leaders for responsible and robust action to lessen the threat. Unfortunately, thus far they have been far more predisposed to lethargy and political gamesmanship in the face of the increasingly menacing epidemic.

Throughout the spring and summer, Zika became a tawdry political hot potato tossed between Republican and Democrat representatives and senators on Capitol Hill. Despite compelling and repeated pleas from the administration of President Barack Obama, the CDC and the World Health Organization, our largely do-nothing national legislature lived up to its reputation by failing to authorize a nearly $2 billion proposal to combat the virus.

In a nutshell, the U.S. House in June passed a bill that would have allocated $1.1 billion – substantially reduced from the president’s initial $1.9 billion request – to fight Zika by funding vaccine development, mosquito-control efforts and a variety of other programs.

Republicans, however, attached many provisions objectionable to Democrats including one that private agencies such as Planned Parenthood could not provide services to pregnant women, one of the most-vulnerable targets of the virus. Such moves effectively blocked the bill in the Senate where 60 votes are needed to cut off debate and bring bills to a full vote.

ZIKA CONTINUES TO ESCALATE

Against that backdrop of gamesmanship and during the first few weeks of lawmakers’ summer recess, the spread of the Zika virus has only spiraled more dramatically. In recent weeks, the number of reported Zika cases in the United States and its territories has soared to about 6,400, including 26 in Ohio (two of which are in Mahoning County), 48 in neighboring Pennsylvania and 449 in nearby New York state.

Seemingly lost in the political quagmire are the very real dangers posed by the virus. Symptoms can resemble mild forms of dengue fever with patients suffering fever, rashes, joint pain, headaches and inflamed eyes. Serious infections can result in microencephaly, severe brain malformations, and other birth defects. Zika infections in adults have also been tied to in Guillain–Barr syndrome, a disorder of the central nervous system.

It’s not surprising then that as the virus spreads, so does fear. Such fear is heightened in areas where mosquito populations abound during these hot summer months. The news three days ago of contraction by bites from mosquitoes in Florida elevates that fear further.

Such fear must be allayed swiftly before it incites panic. In the words of White House spokesman Eric Schultz, the news of home-grown Zika infection in the U.S. should be “a wake-up call to Congress to get back to work.”

The cost of prolonged inaction grows by the day. First, local governments need federal assistance to implement viable mosquito-control programs. In addition, researchers at the National Institutes of Health may be forced to stop tests on potential vaccines and medications as their funding quickly dries up. Third, as the Summer Olympics unfold in Rio de Janeiro later this week, the prospect of a jump in Zika viral infections among Americans traveling there looms very large.

Clearly, Congress should not sit idly by this month as the epidemic escalates. Republican leaders in the House and Senate should listen to the pleas of Democrats calling for a special and immediate session to approve the funding.

Failure to act soon – preferably this month – will cast only more deserved shame on many federal lawmakers just as their re-election campaigns enter the homestretch this fall.