It's Monday, July 18, and Day 156 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell laid down his Supreme Court blockade: No meetings, no hearings, no votes on his replacement. It's also Day 119 since President Obama named Merrick Garland to be Scalia's replacement. What's the Senate doing today instead of considering the Supreme Court nominee?
Sleeping in late. Working on their list of excuses to give local media this week for not being at the Republican National Convention. Stocking up on mosquito repellent. Summer 2016 could very well become "Zika Summer," and Senate Republicans' refusal to fund a response to this threat—with no political strings attached—has public health officials terrified.
More than five months passed, and Zika has proved to be worse, in many ways, than health officials feared. A suspected link between the virus and the grave birth defect microcephaly was confirmed. Scientists learned that Zika can cause devastating outcomes, including death, in infected children and adults—not just among fetuses. And it became clear that the virus is spread not just by infected mosquitoes but through sexual contact. Health officials are only just beginning to understand the enormous scope of Zika’s impact, and the threat of an outbreak in the United States remains acute. The first death caused by Zika was recorded in the United States earlier this month.
Yet when members of Congress embarked on a seven-week recess last week, they failed to resolve the question of whether to approve money to combat Zika. “Without ensuring there are sufficient resources available for research, prevention, control, and treatment of illnesses associated with the Zika virus, the United States will be ill equipped to deploy the kind of public-health response needed to keep our citizens safe and healthy—especially since the spread of mosquito-borne illness is accelerated during the summer months,” the American Medical Association said in a statement on Thursday.
Not confirming a Supreme Court out of political pique is shameful. Not responding to an imminent public health crisis out of political pique is simply dangerous.
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