Partisan Squabbling Intensifies Even As Aides Report Progress On Zika Funding

USA Today: Fight For Zika Money Hampered By Partisan Squabbles
Turns out Zika is as much a political quagmire as it is a health crisis. Finger-pointing and partisan backbiting abound on Capitol Hill, despite pleas from both sides of the aisle to take the politics out of efforts to combat the disease that has infected 805 Floridians and tarnished the state’s reputation as a tourist mecca. (King, 9/15)

The Associated Press: Aides: Congress Makes Progress On Zika, Spending
A long impasse that has delayed money to combat Zika for months neared an end Thursday as congressional aides said Republicans would relent and let Planned Parenthood affiliated clinics share in new funding to fight the virus. The potential deal would ease the way for Congress to quit work until after the Nov. 8 election. (Taylor, 9/15)

In other news on Zika —

The Washington Post: ‘No Room For Doubt': New Science Proves Zika Causes Microcephaly
Scientists have produced the strongest evidence yet that Zika virus infection in pregnant women causes microcephaly in their babies. In a report released Thursday, researchers from Brazil and Britain studied babies born this year in the heart of the epidemic in northeastern Brazil. They compared 32 babies born with microcephaly to 62 babies born around the same time in the same hospitals who did not have the severe birth defect. (Sun, 9/15)

Stat: Fetuses Exposed To Zika Have Significant Microcephaly Risk, Study Finds
Babies exposed to the Zika virus as fetuses are more than 50 times more likely to be born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains — a condition called microcephaly — as other babies, according to a new study. The authors of the study, published Thursday in Lancet Infectious Diseases, cautioned that the finding was an interim result and research is still going on, “so the magnitude needs to be treated with some caution.” But outside researchers said this type of research, known as a case-control study, is more likely to avoid the biases that can affect other types of studies. This was the first case-control study looking at the association between microcephaly and Zika. (Joseph, 9/15)

Los Angeles Times: Researchers Strengthen Link Between Zika And Microcephaly
A first-of-its-kind study is strengthening the case that Zika is the culprit behind Brazil’s mysterious surge in babies born with microcephaly. Preliminary results from a study commissioned by the Brazilian Ministry of Health found that 13 out of 32 newborns with microcephaly tested positive for the Zika virus. Meanwhile, none of the 62 newborns in a comparison group who had normal-sized heads showed any sign of infection. (Kaplan, 9/15)

Miami Herald: Pesticide Spraying For Zika Mosquitoes Sparks Angry Protest At Miami Beach City Hall 
The crowd was in the throes of an anti-Naled frenzy, incensed at the aerial spraying over Miami Beach meant to kill off Zika-carrying mosquitoes. No amount of talk about a public health emergency would pacify the Beach’s rowdiest commission meeting in memory. Wednesday’s gathering gave us the startling scenario of public health specialists being jeered like a pack of lying dogs with their talk of microcephaly and other terrible birth defects caused by the Zika virus. (Grimm, 9/15)

Tampa Bay Times: Containing Zika: How Tampa Bay Health Officials Scrambled To Stop The Spread Of The Virus
It would be four days before Gov. Rick Scott would announce the case to the public, but Health Department epidemiologists in Pinellas and Hillsborough were already on full alert to try to limit the spread of the virus. And it was in Tampa, not Pinellas, where most containment efforts took place, according to Health Department emails obtained by the Tampa Bay Times. Crucial to devising a containment plan were extensive interviews conducted over at least two days with the Tampa Fire Rescue firefighter, now classified by epidemiologists as a Person Under Investigation. (O'Donnell, 9/16)