President Obama is asking people not to panic about the Zika virus.
“The good news is this is not like Ebola, people don’t die of Zika — a lot of people get it and don’t even know that they have it,” the president said in an interview with Gayle King that aired Monday on “CBS This Morning.”
Obama did add, however, that “there appears to be some significant risk for pregnant women or women who are thinking about getting pregnant.”
“And we don’t know exactly what the relations there are, but there is enough correlation that we have to take this very seriously,” he said. “And so we are going to be putting up a legislative proposal to Congress to resource both the research on vaccines and diagnostics but also helping in terms of public health systems.”
“But there shouldn’t be panic on this, this is not something where people are going to die from it,” he said. “It is something we have to take seriously.”
The White House announced Monday that it is asking for $1.8 billion in emergency funding for Zika response efforts and research.
The first two known cases in the United States were found earlier this month in Texas after Puerto Rico declared a state of emergency after 22 confirmed cases were reported. The virus has been linked to microcephaly in newborns from mothers who had the virus.
