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Manus averages are quiet today, with the Dow currently down thirteen and a half points, sysipes down one and then NAZAC is higher by nine. The small cap six hundred is little changed and the US ten yield at one point five four percent. Five out of ten sub sectors are high, led by gains in healthcare, technology and consumer staples. Energy and materials led to the downside down Transports fall thirty and as a biotechs gain four. Utilities are a little changed and the VIX is up by three percent.
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Pim Fox on Bloomberg Radio. According to Texas public health officials, the death of a new born in the Houston area has been linked to the Zeka virus, and today Governor Rick Scott of Florida said that the federal government must stop playing politics and Congress needs to immediately come back to session to resolve the dispute over funding for ZEKA. Here to tell us more is Brian Ry. He is
senior healthcare policy analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence Government Team. He joins us from Washington, d C, home to Bloomberg FM and one oh five point seven h D two. Brian, this new bit of news is not really new, It's only new in its specifics. Why is it taking this kind of news item to get people's attention about the seriousness of the Zeke virus. Well, Pam, first of all,
thanks for having me on. And it's a great question because, as you sort of pointed out, a lot of things are going on right now and none of them are very good. Governor Scott dan in Florida also announced and I think they've identified four more cases, bringing the total up to twenty one. The CDC has issued the first ever, as far as we can tell, first ever domestic travel
advisory for a neighborhood in Miami. And the Olympics are in an area of the world that's also been ravaged um by the virus, and you know, has the potential to have some not so good news coming out of the Olympics. UM. Now, the problem for Congress is twofold. Number one, Republicans and Democrats have had a hard time coming together on the right level of funding and legislation to to help address this. And the second problem is, even if they could come to an agreement, they're not
in session right now. They're out on their summer recess until until Labor Day. Uh. And so it's one of those things that we're going to continue to have this slow drip of news news news, and oh, by the way, we're now less than three months away from the election. That sort of helps to harden those political stances even more. What was the political atmosphere in June when Senate Democrats
blocked a compromise bill. You know, the the attitude at first earlier in the year was actually okay, you know, certainly President Obama had wanted more money one point nine billion. They felt like they had had a compromise between Senate Democrats and Republicans at one point one billion. The Conference Committee had worked that out. Uh. Senate Democrats, as you pointed out, blocked a legislation over concerns about some some provisions in the bill didn't specify some additional funding for
planned parenthood. For example, that's a lightning rod for both sides, and they sort of drew a line in the sand there and they adjourned for their summer recess without having come to an agreement. Now, again, we don't know what sort of mood they'll be in. You know that the expression is absence makes the heart grow funder. I'm not sure that's the case for Republicans and Democrats coming off their their recess. But if this sort of thing it changed to happen, my guess is we'll see them come
to some sort of an agreement uh in September. But again, with an election three months away, neither side feels really compelled to be the one that gives in. First we mentioned Texas, also Florida. I want you to tell us about what's going on in Puerto Rico. You know, it's
it's really bad uh there. And you know, a big chunk of the funding that was certainly requested by President Obama was to increase funding both for medicaid and additional grants to help treat to help combat the population there. And certainly, not only is it a problem for the people within Puerto Rico, but because it's US territory, you know, there's easy transit between the islands, um and and the rest of the continent of the United States. And so
you've seen concerns. Certainly in Florida bipartisan both senators Republican Marco Rubio Democrat Bill Nelson certainly want them to come back and address this. And I think Rubio would even be fine with the president's higher request. But certainly both parties there want to get this fixed. You know. Unfortunately for them so far, the rest of the country isn't
impacted by that. And you know the expression all politics are local and right now it's it's something that's in the news but hasn't really touched home for I guess a sufficient number of Americans, well, Brian Uh to reconvene Congress. Forty seven Senate Democrats have already asked the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, as well as Paul Ryan House Leader, to
go ahead and reconvene Congress immediately. You know they could I think, um, you know, Senator McConnell's answer would probably well, why should we reconvene for you so you can say no again. You know, you had a bill we had to compromise, uh there on the desk that you rejected in June, and I think they feel comfortable that that's
the bill they want to move forward. Now. Again, events can change very quickly, but I don't think that they're necessarily going to heed the call of Democrats and Secretary Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail to come back and be seen as doing their bidding to just have this become more and more of an argument over, for example,
planned parenthood instead of trying to address address the issue now. Again, Republicans may decide that that's not something they want to draw a line in the sand on either, But I don't think that's the cases we sit here on August nine. As we sit here, there are companies such as in Novio, Snofi, and Glaxo smith Klein. They are working to develop a Zeka vaccine. Did they rely on this kind of government
funding as well? Well, it certainly helps. And you know two of the ones you mentioned U you know, Santa Fee and Glaxo smith Klein are in fact working in sort of these private public partnership. Santa Fe is in the deal with the U. S. Army to try and
work on a vaccine. Glad So Smith Klient is working separately with the n i H, and so these grant funds you know, are coming in not only for the vaccines but also for diagnostic agents and tests to help people to at least identify what this is, because this is one of the tough things about ZEKA is it's
not readily apparent that that you might have. The symptoms are tough, tough to deal with, tough to identify, and and so yes, absolutely this is something where they would rely on some government funding to help move that process along. Thank you very much for enlightening us. Brian Ry is our senior healthcare policy analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, the government team of course, Bloomberg Intelligence providing real and unique research and context on a variety of industries, all markets, and
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