US lawmaker brings 100 mosquitoes to House floor!

Florida Republican Representative David Jolly brought a container of mosquitoes onto the House floor on Wednesday. “I rise with about 100 mosquitoes straight from Florida...mosquitoes capable of carrying the Zika virus,” Jolly said, holding the container.

“This is the reason for the urgency, this is the reason for the fear,” he was quoted as saying by NBC Miami. The bill, providing USD 1.1 billion to help combat the virus, is stalled in the Senate, where Democrats are blocking it in a dispute over restrictions the bill would place on funding for Planned Parenthood clinics.

Jolly, who represents the 13th District in Pinellas County, said the mosquitoes, still in their larval stage, came from researchers at the University of South Florida and are not active carriers.

He brought them to the House to criticise Congress for failing to pass legislation to combat the mosquito-borne Zika virus in the Sunshine State.

There have been 56 non-travel related Zika cases in Florida, many of them in Miami-Dade's “Zika zones” in Wynwood and Miami Beach, according to the Florida Department of Health. Additionally, some 577 travel-related Zika cases have been reported throughout Florida.

Jolly said he brought the mosquitoes to the House to convey the fear Floridians are feeling. “It is our job to respond to the fear and the anxiety and the anger of a population concerned about a pending public health crisis, concerned about mosquitoes,” he was quoted as saying.

“You see, I brought these mosquitoes here today to convey that fear and that anxiety of millions of Americans and Floridians,” he said.