When it comes to domestic problems, a common joke among my independently minded friends is, “It’s all Bush’s fault.”
However, when it comes to problems of a more international scope, the preferred target is the United States. So, when tasked with figuring out what went wrong, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues blamed America first!
Despite the fact that there have been regular flare-ups of Ebola in Africa since 1976, and that there is a United Nations group that is tasked “to improve health, particularly among disadvantaged populations”, a recent report lays the blame for the spread of the virus at America’s doorstep.
The United States fumbled its response to the Ebola epidemic before it even began, neglecting experiments to make vaccines and drugs against the virus, and cutting funding to key public health agencies, a presidential commission said Thursday.Americans focused on their own almost nonexistent risk of catching Ebola from travelers instead of pressing to help the truly affected nations, the scathing report from the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues says.They’ve been acting against their own best interest, the commission said in its report.”Both justice and prudence demand that we do our part in combating such devastating outbreaks. Once we recognize our humanitarian obligations and the ability of infectious diseases to travel in our interconnected world, we cannot choose between the ethical and the prudential,” it reads.”Ethics and enlightened interest converge in calling for our country to address epidemics at their source.”
I find it laughable that our citizens are being blamed for wanting the government that they have voted into power and pay for through taxes to act in the national self interest. The biggest flaw in the American response to Ebola was the fact for our Centers for Control and Prevention failed to send a fully trained response to Texas Presbyterian Hospital when America’s “Patient Zero” was originally identified.
As a result, virus-laden vomit was spray washed by unprotected clean-up crews, a nurse was allowed to fly the friendly skies to a bridal shop, and our government seemed more worried about our international image than about American public health.
Recall that Obama, ever mindful of how to “spread the wealth”, arranged for “Operation United Assistance” in September, and millions of dollars were directed at combating the most serious outbreak of Ebola ever recorded.
How has that worked out? Exactly as you would expect when you send millions of dollars in “aid” to Africa:
A report by Sierra Leone’s national auditor says government ministers lost track of more than $3 million in internal emergency funds to fight the Ebola virus, impairing the response to the disease.There is no paperwork to support payments of 14 billion leones, or $3.3 million, from government Ebola accounts, while $2.5 million in disbursements had incomplete documentation, the country’s auditor general, Lara Taylor-Pearce, said in the report.
And, despite the troops, the aid money, and the “mission accomplished” accolades , the number of cases is surging again — because of the resumption of unsafe burial practices.
Ebola-hit Sierre Leone and Guinea saw an increase in the last week in unsafe burials that risk spreading the disease, the World Health Organization reported.In Guinea, there were 39 unsafe burials and in Sierre Leone, there were 45 reported in the week to February 15, WHO said in a report late Wednesday.
At least the Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf seems to appreciate the role our country has played in the fight against this disease.
In her comments, Sirleaf said, “I come to express, on behalf of the Liberian people, to you, to the Congress, to all the entities, what we call the front-line responders, to faith-based institutions, to the American people in general, for the support we received as we fought this virus.”
It’s good to see that at least one president appreciates the American people. It’s just too bad its not ours.
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