The money the Obama administration has managed to cobble together to fight Zika is about to run out, while the Republican Congress yawns. One of the biggest yawners is Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, one of the key committees that is supposed to be responding to public health crises. For months now Blunt has been ignoring the crisis and his opponent, Democrat Jason Kander, has been pushing him on it.
Kander has some back up now, from health professionals all over the state.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Health professionals from across the state of Missouri called on Senator Blunt and his colleagues in Congress to cut short a seven week recess and fund a comprehensive approach to combat the Zika virus. The letter, copied below, came after the first cases of the Zika virus transmitted by mosquitoes in the continental U.S. were reported last week. […]
Today’s letter, signed by 11 doctors and nurses, calls on Senator Blunt and his colleagues to cut their recess short and return to Washington so they can finish funding a comprehensive response to the Zika crisis. If Congress waits until September to pass a deal, funding to develop a vaccine may have run out, a major setback to progress.
“We need a bill that will help protect Missourians from this virus, and one that will help speed up progress on a vaccine so we can eventually eliminate the threat of this virus,” the letter reads. “Missourians don’t get to take a vacation for seven weeks without doing their job, Senator Blunt, and neither should you. It’s time to get back to Washington and do what we elected you to do six years ago—work across the aisle, pass legislation, and keep us safe.”
Missouri now has twelve confirmed cases as of this Tuesday, all of which are travel-related. As of June, two of those cases were in pregnant women. What does Roy Blunt have to say to those women?
Please donate $3 today to help Jason Kander get this guy out of the Senate.