The Obama administration’s top health official said it would be a “mistake” to use leftover money for combating the Ebola virus to fight Zika.
“We would be making us less safe against Ebola,” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said during a Senate hearing on the agency’s budget.
The administration has asked for more than $1.8 billion in emergency funding to deal with the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne virus that has been potentially linked to a birth defect called microcephaly. The virus has spread to nearly 30 countries and about 50 cases have been identified in the U.S.
But GOP lawmakers have said the funding isn’t necessary as there is still money left over for combating the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has largely subsided.
“There is no immediate shortage of money for the administration to do what they think needs to be done,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., during a press conference on Tuesday.
Burwell said the biggest pot of money the administration has for Ebola is $500 million for global health.
That money will be spread over five years to countries to help them prepare for infectious disease outbreaks, she told the Senate Finance Committee.
“Each year we have something, we have to get these countries ready,” she said.
Burwell referred to the increase in cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a condition that cropped up in countries beyond the Middle East last year.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., pushed for GOP senators to approve the new funding, saying that using the Ebola pot of money is “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
He added that a robust government effort is needed to stop the Zika virus outbreak.
“The private sector is not going to fight Zika,” said Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate.
