Democrats assailing GOP over failure to pass Zika funding | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Government health officials will soon begin conducting clinical trials of a vaccine designed to combat the Zika virus – a mosquito borne and sexually transmitted disease known to cause birth defects in the babies of infected women.

But despite that fears Zika could spread to parts of California, especially as the weather warms, no Republican members of California’s congressional delegation has signed on to legislation that would provide $1.9 billion in emergency funding to address the health issue.

Democrats are using the lack of Republican support to label their congressional rivals as uncaring about a looming public health threat.

“There are more than 1,000 Americans – including more than 100 pregnant women – with confirmed cases of Zika, but House Republicans continue to dawdle in the face of this frightening threat,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said Tuesday.

House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, did not respond to e-mailed questions about the funding fight.

California so far has recorded 40 Zika infections, the third-highest number in the mainland United States. None is believed to have been transmitted locally by the bite of an Aedes aegypti mosquito, the most common way Zika is thought to have spread in the 38 countries and territories in the Western Hemisphere where the disease is now present.

Of the 472 cases in the mainland U.S., 10 are believed to have been transmitted by unprotected sex, and the rest were contracted when a person traveled to a Zika-infected area.

The risk of further spread is driving California Democrats to push for action on the emergency funds request. Many point out that the Aedes aegypti mosquito’s range includes two-thirds of California, including the Sacramento area. Another possible carrier, the Aedes albopictus, is present in even more parts of the state, according to maps published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Everyone in America should be concerned about Zika,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin. “We’ve already seen its potentially devastating effects in South America, and we must do all we can to stop it before it spreads across the United States and save many American families a horrible heartbreak.”

Swalwell is supporting legislation written by Rep. Curt Clawson, R-Florida, that would provide $200 million in grants for mosquito-control programs from fiscal years 2016 through 2020. Those programs should be a part of the “overall Zika solution,” Swalwell said.

Clawson’s state has the most confirmed Zika cases in the mainland United States – 95, according to the CDC. New York ranks second, with 89.

Democrat Rep. Ami Bera of Elk Grove, Calif., is tracking the plans for the vaccine’s clinical trials. Bera, a physician, attended a May 5 briefing on the development of a vaccine at the National Institutes of Health. He said that if more members of Congress had a chance to see the science behind the development of the Zika virus vaccine, then they would understand why continued investment in research and discovery is so important.

Bera commended U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Chief Anthony Fauci for the speed with which the vaccine was developed. The institute plans to test the vaccine in 80 people in September, according to Science Magazine. If the vaccine proves to be safe, additional studies will be conducted.

“When Dr. Fauci initially indicated that he was hopeful that we’d have a vaccine by the end of the year, that, in my mind – to come up with a brand new vaccine that quickly, you know – seemed a stretch,” Bera said. “So the science behind how they got to a place where we’ll be able to go into phase one clinical trials is fascinating.”