Zika virus fears may have been overblown, says Government Accountability Office

The Obama administration’s imprecise Zika maps may have unnecessarily “spread fear” last year about the danger areas for contracting the virus from mosquitos, Congress’s top watchdog said Tuesday.

The Government Accountability Office said the Centers for Disease Control “painted with a broad brush” in maps that showed entire states as mosquito habitat when only certain areas of those states were infested.

The National Institutes of Health, meanwhile said it cannot predict when a vaccine that taxpayers shelled out $400 million for last year will be ready, with NIH chief Anthony Fauci saying he didn’t want to give false hopes or set unrealistic goals.

“I’m not gong to give you a figure for a time for when we’re going to have a Zika vaccine,” Dr. Fauci said.

He was testifying to the House Energy and Commerce Committee as the federal government and states begin to prepare for another Zika season, trying to learn the lessons of last year’s first encounter with the disease on the U.S. mainland.

Just 222 cases were reported contracted from mosquitos on the mainland U.S. last year — 216 in Florida and six in Texas. That’s far more localized than some public health warned last year, when the Obama administration demanded more than $2 billion in emergency funding.

After a government shutdown showdown, Congress ended up approving $1.1 billion.

Without a vaccine, public health professionals say they have to rely on alerting travelers about highly infected areas, stressing safe sex practices to stop spread of the disease and trying to control mosquito populations.

A working vaccine is a priority, and 32 different candidates are under study. One in particular has moved from animal testing to now being used on humans. Dr. Fauci said the vaccine has proven to be safe, but it is still being evaluated.

“It may take years before you finally prove statistically that it’s good enough for the FDA to approve it,” said Mr. Fauci.

Part of the problem is the relatively low level of actual Zika infections reported. There may be too few cases to determine whether a vaccine is working.

“It’s really unpredictable, it could be as soon as a couple years … or as far as three to four to five years,” said Dr. Fauci.

Another hurdle the GAO identified was with the diagnostic tests for Zika. Because there isn’t a universal test standard, comparing clinical performance is difficult.

Thus far, 15 diagnostic tests have been authorized; however, some of them were detecting the presence of a virus that may not have been Zika.

But Luciana Borio, chief scientist at the Food and Drug Administration, pushed back against problems with the tests.

“All of the tests that have been authorized by the FDA meet performance standards,” she said. “If used appropriately, as recommended by the CDC, these tests perform well and should be able to give an answer to patients about whether or not they’ve been infected with the Zika virus.”

Rick Bright, the director for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, told lawmakers his organization received roughly $132 million in 2016 to assist in the development of a Zika vaccine and used roughly $94 million last year on the development and movement of the vaccines into various phases of studies.

Democrats on the committee Tuesday warned that President Trump’s new budget could cut money from public health funds, potentially spreading Zika further.

“If you were a Zika virus and you wanted to wreak havoc on this world … then you would want to decrease funding to stop or slow down the development of a vaccine,” said Rep. Raul Ruiz, California Democrat. “If you were a Zika virus and you wanted to infect as many women and children as possible, you would think about maybe finding a way to deny coverage for maternity care or make it optional or even oral contraceptives.”

The committee’s chairman, Rep. Tim Murphy, Republican Pennsylvania, quickly interrupted Mr. Ruiz, “I think the gentleman should be careful with the accusations you’re saying on that.”