The National Institutes of Health has nothing left to give in its battle against the Zika virus.
A top research official told reporters Wednesday that future trials planned this summer for a Zika virus vaccine can’t go forward without new funding from Congress. However, Congress ignored the $1.9 billion requested by President Obama, and the $1.1 billion that passed the House failed in the Senate, leaving the NIH with no funding.
“I don’t have money to move from any other place,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
Fauci said that he plans to start a trial in August or September that would evaluate the safety of a Zika vaccine. But he said that without a new appropriation from Congress, he wouldn’t be able to go forward with future trials.
Fauci said he has already redirected funds from other research projects including into tuberculosis, but he can’t do that any more.
“There is no money for me to tap into,” he said.
Fauci was also dismissive of the $1.1 billion bill that failed in the Senate this week. That bill would have used existing funds to battle Zika, something the Obama administration and congressional Democrats oppose.
Fauci said that if the $1.1 billion were approved, he would work to get the Zika vaccine work done, but said other important priorities would have to wait. Fauci did not elaborate on what those other priorities were.
President Obama made the $1.9 billion request back in February, but redirected $500 million in Ebola funding after Congress didn’t act on his request.
The House passed the $1.1 billion request but Senate Democrats blocked approval in the Senate, arguing that the bill included poison pill riders such as cutting funding for birth control to Planned Parenthood. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised to take up the funding proposal again, even though it has also received a veto threat from the president.
