Come on, don’t kid a kidder. I can see what’s going on here, is what Dr. Mary Bassett, New York City’s health commissioner seems to be saying to Congress in an opinion piece on its delay in funding the fight against Zika.
The media have bombarded us with images of brown babies with microcephaly who live in the Caribbean and Latin America. Our Congress, which is dominated by an increasingly anti-immigrant party, may not feel a sense of urgency to respond to this evolving tragedy.
The virus, which has so far affected 3,200 individuals and more than 700 pregnant women in the U.S., causes microcephaly in unborn children. Microcephaly is
...a birth defect where a baby’s head is smaller than expected when compared to babies of the same sex and age. Babies with microcephaly often have smaller brains that might not have developed properly.
It can be spread through mosquito bites and sex.
Bassett allows that the usual political gridlock has played some role in why Congress hasn’t gotten the job done, but the real reason for the foot-dragging is black and white, and brown and white: racism.
From my perspective, the unspoken narrative of Zika is about who is deserving of protection. I was forced to consider this narrative when the first baby with Zika-related microcephaly was born in New York City. With its birth, the theoretical threat became real.
Questions, which tend to reflect society, immediately came: Is the mother undocumented? Had she come from the Dominican Republic or Mexico? The question was not whether she was from the Upper East Side or Upper West Side.
A child with different demographics, Barrett writes, might be treated differently.
To protect the family’s privacy, we offered no personal details. But we worried. Would a disabled baby and its mother confront unfriendly speculation because of their background, even as they faced such tragedy? This didn’t happen, but it pained me to realize that some mothers might face scrutiny, while others would not.
Let me say it plainly: a white, affluent, educated mother would be able to count on more sympathy and support.
The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to advance a bill that would keep the government operating past Sept. 30 and provide more than $1 billion in Zika funding. Both parties, however, want to attach riders to the bill to fund other projects.
Democrats want money to help clean up lead-contaminated drinking water in Flint, Mich., while Republican lawmakers from Louisiana want more federal aid for their flood-ravaged state.
But even if Congress puts aside its differences and votes on a bill, wrote Barrett, it will take months for the funding to reach those who could benefit. In the meantime, the brains of unborn infants infected with the virus are shrinking.