Fortune: How Businesses Should Respond to the Zika Virus Charles Perrings, Carlos Castillo-Chavez, and Bertram Jacobs, all professors at Arizona State University “…Corporations operating in countries affected by infectious diseases have a narrow, short-term interest in the financial consequences if customers defer or cancel trade and travel plans. … They…

Washington Post: Congressional Republicans are playing games with a public health emergency Editorial Board “…To fight an outbreak requires resources and time. Congress is undermining the effort on both counts. Vaccine development, now underway, is a long-term project; surveillance is a multi-year endeavor; creating rapid diagnostics is a major undertaking;…

Washington Times: Zika virus fight needs quick, generous spending, Obama administration says “The White House accused Republicans of being indifferent to pregnant women and their unborn babies by refusing to spend the nearly $2 billion President Obama wants freed up to fight the Zika virus, escalating the fracas in Washington…

The Hill: Senate Dems to force vote on Zika funding “Senate Democrats will try to force a vote next week on nearly $2 billion to bolster the national response to the Zika virus. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said at a press conference Thursday he will dig in on…

Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks”: From HIV to Ebola to Zika, Dr. Jim Kim of World Bank makes a case for pandemic insurance Antigone Barton, senior editor and writer of “Science Speaks,” discusses an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) during which World…

BBC News: Olympic Games: World Health Organization to conduct Zika examination “The World Health Organization is to examine the risks of holding the Olympics in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro because of the Zika virus…” (6/3). The Hill: U.N. health agency to weigh Zika risk from Olympics “…WHO…

Wall Street Journal: Zika Draws U.S. Researchers Into a Race for Understanding “…Understanding how fast and far a disease will spread helps policy makers and public-health workers respond efficiently to the threat of an epidemic. In the past, models have helped allocate resources such as mosquito nets, treatment, and vaccines…

Reuters: WHO expert panel on Zika to meet next week, review Olympics guidance “The World Health Organization’s Emergency Committee on Zika will meet early next week to consider new evidence and review its recommendations, including regarding the Rio Olympics, a WHO spokesman said on Tuesday…” (Nebehay, 6/7). Reuters: New research…

Associated Press: Some experts contend Brazil is exaggerating Zika crisis “Often drowned out by the dire warnings and fear surrounding Zika, some medical professionals are saying that Brazil and international health officials have prematurely declared a link between the virus and what appears to be a surge in birth defects.…

The Guardian: A global defense system to fight virus threats is urgently needed Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, and Trevor Mundel, president of the global health division at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation “…The world needs … systems to protect against epidemic and pandemic diseases. We need…