Dear Washington: The Time to Prepare for Zika Has Come and Gone

Dear presidential candidates, senators, and congressional representatives: Get your butts back to Washington immediately. The time you’ve had to get a preparedness plan in order but have wasted twiddling thumbs and shifting around budgets to make it look like you were taking the threat of Zika seriously is over. So, go behind closed doors to negotiate if the glare of the media and prying eyes of your constituencies is uncomfortable — I don’t care. But know this: The goal is to prevent a major pandemic from sweeping the nation, the births of thousands of Zika-deformed and neurologically impaired babies, to forestall adult cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, eye problems, and other rare disorders caused by Zika infection, as well as to prevent the devastation of other public health and safety programs in cities, counties, and states across America as they shift resources from one account to another.