The following opinion pieces discuss various issues surrounding the Ebola epidemic.

Wall Street Journal: Poll: Most Americans Positive About Ebola Response
Drew Altman, president and chief executive officer of the Kaiser Family Foundation

“…[T]he American people have remained levelheaded [about Ebola in the U.S.]. … The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a poll last week that found … [f]ully 73 percent of respondents said that if there were an Ebola outbreak in their area they would have confidence in the CDC’s ability to contain the spread of Ebola, with somewhat smaller percentages saying the same about their local hospitals and health departments. … While public confidence in the CDC fell by 11 percentage points [in a follow-up poll over the weekend], a majority (62 percent) continue to express confidence in the agency, and the shares of Americans confident in their local hospitals and health departments were similar to our previous finding. … Going forward, a lot will depend on whether there are more cases in the U.S., and how many; whether there are further missteps in the public health response; and whether this issue is overtly politicized as so many others are these days” (10/21).

The Lancet Infectious Diseases: Ebola in West Africa: from disease outbreak to humanitarian crisis
Peter Piot and W. John Edmunds of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Jean-Jacques Muyembe of Institut National de Recherche Biomédical

“…The West African epidemic has profoundly changed how we view Ebola virus infection, which has transformed from a rare event in Central Africa into a major public health and destabilizing humanitarian crisis. … Now is also the time to address the huge economic and societal havoc that Ebola is causing in the region, while planning for rebuilding of health systems and disease surveillance. … Other outbreaks of Ebola will occur, as the populations exposed to the probable virus reservoir are expanding in Africa and the potential for a large epidemic remains where fertile ground for it exists. This has major implications for the future. A large epidemic can — and will — happen again, unless we always remain extremely vigilant, respond promptly, and have more to offer than isolation and quarantine” (November 2014).

Washington Post: Ebola caregivers deserve a parade
Richard Cohen, opinion writer

Huffington Post: On Ebola and the Challenge of Quarantine
Utibe Effiong, Nigerian research scientist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health

Project Syndicate: Ebola in America
Abdul El-Sayed, professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Washington Post: Beating Ebola through a national plan
John Fox, president and chief executive of Emory Healthcare

Roll Call: Preparedness Issues Linger as Ebola Worries Intensify
Darrell Henry, executive director of the Healthcare Coalition for Emergency Preparedness

New York Times: Fighting Ebola, and the Mud
Karin Huster, a nurse with Last Mile Health

New York Times: Letters To The Editor: For an Optimal Response to Ebola
Phillip Lee, assistant secretary for health in the Johnson and Clinton administrations; John Aach, lecturer in genetics at Harvard Medical School; and others

Wall Street Journal: Reasons to Calm Down About Ebola
F. Landis MacKellar, senior associate at the Population Council, and Jose Siri, a research fellow at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health

The Hill: West African countries show Ebola can be beaten
J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center

The Hill: Ebola crisis: All hands on deck
Kristi Rogers, managing director and CEO of Aspen Healthcare Services

Wall Street Journal: What the Ebola Experts Miss
Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal deputy editorial page editor

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

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