The Texas lawmakers penned a letter about the Zika virus to both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday.
Just six weeks before thousands of Americans head to Rio for the 2016 Summer Olympics, they’re asking for stronger travel warnings when it comes to Zika.
Letter to CDC and Sec. of State John Kerry
[[383708381,C]]
Burgess has been outspoken for months, he even appeared on Lone Star Politics and said if asked for advice, he would say do not go to the Olympics.
Burgess and Cornyn are concerned that people visiting the CDC’s travel alert page can’t easily find information about Zika.
Burgess also said he believes Zika should have a Level 3 designation when it comes to travel, instead of the current Level 2. Level 2 calls for practicing enhanced precautions, while Level 3 calls for avoiding non-essential travel.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
“Here is the problem. No one gets this illness in the continental United States today unless they get it and bring it home. So we are looking at a situation with summer travel where people are going to be going to a place where a lot of people are congregating, half a million people are coming to Brazil in the month of August for the Olympics and then they are going to go back to their respective countries. The worst case scenario they are carrying this virus to their populations,” said Burgess.
NBC 5 reached out to the CDC, it has not offered a response.
