President Barack Obama will reportedly sign a bill passed by Congress that will fast-track the production of a Zika vaccine, though the White House has not greeted the passage with much enthusiasm.
While the bill — passed Tuesday — will provide drug makers with incentive to develop a vaccine and vouchers to hasten Food and Drug Administration review of the product once the government has deemed it a priority, it does not provide federal agencies with the $1.9 billion the Obama administration requested to fight the virus.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest called the bill "akin to passing out umbrellas in the advance of a potential hurricane." Mr. Earnest also said the bill is "two months late and $1.9 billion short...the bill that Congress passed yesterday doesn't include any funding. So that's not going to do anything to help local communities across the country that carry this virus — or fight the mosquitoes that carry this virus."
The bill's passage has come after an announcement that the Obama administration will use $510 million in leftover Ebola funds to combat Zika.
On Monday, Anne Schuchat, MD, the principal deputy director of the CDC, said, "Everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought."
On Wednesday, the CDC joined the World Health Organization in officially confirming Zika's link to the birth defect microcephaly.
More articles on the Zika virus:
CDC confirms Zika causes birth defect microcephaly
CDC official: Zika virus is 'scarier than we initially thought'
Zika virus linked to another brain disease