Dick Durbin: “this article is entitled, ``U.S. Officials Are Surprised by Zika Rate in Puerto Rico.'' It goes on: ``Roughly 1 percent…”

“this article is entitled, ``U.S. Officials Are Surprised by Zika Rate in Puerto Rico.'' It goes on: ``Roughly 1 percent of recent blood donors in Puerto Rico showed signs of active infection with the Zika virus, suggesting that a substantial portion of the island's population will become infected, federal health officials reported on Friday.'' They go on to cite the statistics that have been analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and here is what they concluded: Based on prior experience, Dr. Williamson [of the CDC] said he would not have expected so many Zika-infected donors until late June or early July. The CDC has estimated that as many as a quarter of the island's 3.5 million people may become infected with the Zika virus this year. ``It's possible that thousands of pregnant women in Puerto Rico could be infected,'' Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, [the CDC's] director, told Reuters . . . leading to ``dozens or hundreds of infants being born with microcephaly in the coming year.'' What is the Republican majority waiting for in the U.S. Senate? What is the Republican majority waiting for in the U.S. House of Representatives? Don't they believe this is a serious public health threat? If they don't, they are ignoring the obvious--evidence given to us by the leading public health defense agency in the United States of America, if not the world. Over and over again, they tell us this is a deadly threat.…”