Pestilence

U.S. officials warn Zika 'scarier' than initially thought | Reuters
Reuters reports: "Top health officials expressed heightened concern on Monday about the threat posed to the United States by the Zika virus, saying the mosquito that spreads it is now present in about 30 states and hundreds of thousands of infections could appear in Puerto Rico. At a White House briefing, they stepped up pressure on the Republican-led Congress to pass approximately $1.9 billion in emergency funding for Zika preparedness that the Obama administration requested in February. [...] Zika, linked to numerous cases of the birth defect micocephaly in Brazil, is spreading rapidly in Latin America and the Caribbean."

Comment: I hope the U.S. political process can work efficiently to fund these efforts because the seasons (and mosquitoes) will not wait for them. People get upset by the seasonal flu and that's so common, imagine Zika spreading in the southern U.S. and becoming an annual seasonal threat just like the flu. They'd better start funding vaccine efforts now before the public starts to understand the scope of the threat.