WASHINGTON, DC - The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), has announced a hearing for Wednesday, March 2, 2016, regarding the Zika virus. Details including the time, location, and witnesses will be announced in the coming weeks and will be posted here as they becomes available. The virus has been reported in at least 20 states to date.
Earlier this month, bipartisan committee leaders wrote to Dr. Thomas Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Nicole Lurie, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), requesting urgent briefings. In addition to requesting the briefings, the leaders posed a number of questions to the three agencies about the U.S. public health response to the growing Zika crisis. A number of agencies briefed committee investigators earlier this week.
“Zika has gone from being a relatively unknown virus a few short weeks ago to a global public health crisis that has now been reported in at least 20 states, and is spreading in the Americas with the Olympics on the horizon. There is a lot we still just don’t know about Zika, and we want to ensure that health officials are prepared for it to get worse," said full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), full committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Murphy, and subcommittee Ranking Member Diana DeGette (D-CO). See Also
* Letters to NIH, CDC and ASPR Regarding Zika Virus
