White House diverts $81 million to avoid Zika vaccine delays

With Congress deadlocked on how best to fund the nation’s Zika response, the Obama administration said it would divert $81 million in government spending to avoid delays in developing a vaccine for the virus.

HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said the money will come from other HHS programs that cannot afford cutbacks.

“We have exhausted our ability to even provide short-term financing to help fight Zika,” Burwell said in a letter to House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “Our nation’s ability to mount the type of Zika response that the American people deserve sits squarely with Congress.”

Burwell described the Zika funding situation as dire. Without the diverted money, she said that Zika vaccine development efforts by the NIH and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) would have run out of money by the end of the month.

Burwell said $34 million within NIH budget would be converted to Zika vaccine funding, and BARDA will receive $47 million from HHS programs devoted to fighting poverty and funding health care services, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The move came amid a stalemate between Democrats and Republicans on how much money to spend on Zika.

In the 6 months since the Obama administration asked Congress for $1.9 billion to fund the response, the two parties have been unable to agree on a sum. Congress went on summer recess in July without agreeing on a bill and will not be back until September.

“The failure to pass a Zika emergency supplemental has forced the administration to choose between delaying critical vaccine development work and raiding other worthy government programs to temporarily avoid these delays,” Burwell said.

Pelosi said inaction by Republicans has forced the administration’s hand to look elsewhere for money.

“Not only are these resources coming out of commitments to the fight against other devastating illnesses, they are nowhere near sufficient to address the Zika crisis with the seriousness it requires,” Pelosi said in a statement.

It was the second time the administration drew money from other programs to fight Zika.

In April, the White House repurposed $589 million in the budget for the Zika response, including $510 million that was pulled from funds set aside for the recent Ebola outbreak.

The Republican chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations criticized the administration for what he classified as a delay in using available money to fund the Zika response.

“It is clear yet again … that federal agencies do indeed have existing funds available within their budgets that can be redirected to fight Zika,” Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said in a statement. “This has been the case all along, and it is disappointing that it has taken this long for this action to occur.”

Florida began reporting locally transmitted Zika virus cases in late July — the first in the continental U.S. Before then, all of the nearly 2,000 cases in the continental U.S. had been in travelers returning from areas where the virus, which can cause serious birth defects, is being spread by local mosquitoes.

Florida health officials believe infections are occurring in a small area of Miami covering less than 1 square mile that encompasses the neighborhood of Wynwood. The CDC has warned pregnant women to avoid the area.

Two Zika-related deaths have been reported so far in the continental U.S., including an infant in Texas who was born with birth defects. – by Gerard Gallagher