Zika has officially spread to Miami Beach

I think you need to also factor in the rate for contracting Zika itself to accurately gauge the risk here.

 

Zika apparently also causes damage to adult brains. There's still very little about it that we know, but recent research is very ominous.

We should not place dice with this disease. The cost of addressing it now might save incredible sums of money later.

 

Our reaction to Zika is scary indifferent. We should be researching the hell out of this thing, but Congress is screwing it up.

 

I suppose your "our" means the federal government, but I know people who have changed their travel or family-making plans based on this virus. In an ideal world child #2 wouldn't be too far off (maybe a year or so) but depending on how all this plays out that will change.

 

Bachelors travel for cheap! I like it.

 

How cynical have I become that I can't even get angry at the fact Congress is deadlocked on providing funding to deal with the Zika infections because one set of ideologues want to use the funding bill to push through their pet (unrelated) policies?

Of course the most basic story is that Democrats are blocking the bill. But it is also true that this isn't a clean vote. Planned Parenthood and allowing the Confederate flag to fly at veteran's cemeteries has nothing to do with this health crisis. And it is so underhandedly cynical for congressional republicans to slip unpopular legislation into the handling of this crisis.

It is bad enough Congress decided to deny Obama the full requisition asked and pushed a bill that is gonna underfund the effort. But to then tie provisions and other clauses/ryders is just irresponsible. But then again, this congress has been managing by crisis for quite a while. Everything, to them, is a game of chicken.

This is just another notch on the belt counting the historical levels of obstruction by the Republican party in this Congress.

This needs more media coverage. Funding has been held up since February.