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Poll: Public Wants Congress to Fund Zika Fight

Some not comfortable traveling to areas where people affected by virus

A mosquito control inspector sprays pesticide to kill mosquitos in Miami Beach, Florida, last month. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A mosquito control inspector sprays pesticide to kill mosquitos in Miami Beach, Florida, last month. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Voters want Congress to make funding to battle the Zika virus a top priority, a new poll shows.

[Administration Sitting on Unspent Funds for Zika]

One-third of more than 1,200 people polled in the Kaiser Family Foundation poll said passing new funding to deal with the outbreak in the U.S. should be at the top of lawmakers’ agenda when they return from summer recess. Another 40 percent said it should at least be considered an important priority.

[Republicans Shocked White House Won’t Bite on Zika Funding]

About half of those polled said they would not be comfortable traveling to parts of Florida where people have been infected with the virus via mosquito.

The White House has requested $1.9 billion to counter the mosquito-borne virus but Congress has yet to allocate that much. The administration has, in the meantime, shifted existing funds in part to pay for developing vaccines.

“People generally do value spending money when there is  sort of a public health emergency,” Mollyann Brodie, executive director of public opinion at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told NPR. The foundation conducted the survey.

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