People with real problems. Please bump these stories up in the pecking order, NY Times.
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We should redirect a couple billion dollars from our military budget to address this great threat to our national security. Yes it is somewhat obnoxious to use our national security as an excuse to do this but I fear the will is not there if we only think in terms of helping others.
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Too many lives lost. The outliers are becoming normalized.
Laura Garrett wrote a highly informative book called, Ebola, Story of an Outbreak. Heartbreaking, how Ebola is linked to the tyranny of corrupt regimes in that country who fill their own coffers and leave absolutely nothing for the people. The poor have to live off the rain forest, cutting it down, hunting its animals, coming more and more in contact with new diseases. And the West could care less about the plight of the Congolese. It is only interested in the country’s enormous mineral wealth.
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Is there any news on help the most powerful, richest, compassionate, advanced country in the world is offering to ending this catastrophe? Or are the leaders of that once great nation competing to see who can take the most destructive verbal shots at the other and oblivious to the realities around the world?
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The silence from "the squad", Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler and other fellow democrats is astonishing loud. And why not? Instead of pressing the Trump administration for funds and organizing a unified response to the real misery and desperation of the Congolese, they embark on futile and self-serving political charades. Let's make no mistake about it, the Ebola epidemic is the most pressing public health threat to Africa. If left unchecked, it is a question of time before it arrives to this country where it will find a politically undivided population and a health system in disarray. Time to act is now!
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@Mephistopheles
What? How have you decided to blame this situation uniquely on US Democrats?
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You must have forgotten that Trump, a Republican, is in charge of the executive branch. When there was an Ebola crisis during President Obama's term, he took the lead as the leader of our country. Where is Donald Trump now that the world has a real, instead of manufactured, crisis?
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@Mephistopheles
why is it the house leadership at fault? the house has passed over 230 bills for the u.s. and ditch mitch the grim reaper has said they will all die in the senate. one of these was the election security bills since Russia wants to separate the u.s.
and ebola has been unchecked for several yrs. in 1994 almost one thousand gorillas died. along with chimps. both of these animals share 99% DNA with humans. they should look for a cure for all of those in these three species.
blame ditch mitch the grim reaper. of course we did find out today that mitch put off voting on the security bills since he got money from lobbyists to his campaign. those two companies bring 80% of voting machines in this country. and of course only 13 states have a paper backup ballot. ebola was first discovered in 1976 right after lassa fever which also has no cure.
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I like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) so much. For many years, I have had the chance to travel to Kinshasa and many other parts of the Country, including in the incredibly beautiful Eastern parts, on the border of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. What has always made me so sad, it's the fact that this is one of the the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources, and at the same time you have among the poorest people in the world struggling to survive, who get absolutely nothing from the profits generated by the exploitation of these natural resources. The DRC Government, and big corporations, based in Western Europe, North America, South Africa, Israel, India .. and now of course China, get all the money in their pockets. Over the years, whereas the potential of growth of the country is enormous, I see the country going down, and down, and down, and most of the people get poorer and poorer and poorer. I am not mentioning the endless succession of wars and conflicts, some of them related to the control of natural resources ... And now Ebola. As if the poorest on earth did not have enough to deal with. Incredible.
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@GD
and of course these countries have the largest mining operations of conflict minerals which everyone uses for tablets, and smart phones which are consumed monthly by everyone in the civilized world.
I feel bad for the destruction of the wildlife, the gorillas and the chimps whose populations have been decimated since 1976 and whose destruction continues. since we share 99% of our DNA with this great population we should work on a virus for everyone.
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Whomever this photographer is, he should get a medal, or at least a Pulitzer. Not only for the courageous reportage, but also for the ART inherent in his images. Especially the photo accompanying the article's lead on the front page of your electronic edition. Brilliant!
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Europe and especially Belgium have a responsibility to resettle the people of the Congo in Europe. With European medical standards and techniques the disease can be controlled. With resettlement of the native Congolese overpopulation in Africa can be helped. We have many Africans in Germany and all are overjoyed to be here and will never return to Africa. With global warming and massive overpopulation Africa is becoming unliveable.
5
Good luck convincing Europeans of that
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@AS
Belgium does have complete accountability. They should be leading this response with their soldiers, doctors and administrators
The USA also has some ownership with installing Mobutu in the 1960’s coup
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Every person putting their lives at risk to fight Ebola
is a true hero.
If we stop it, they should be lauded by the world community and paid in accordance with their service to humanity.
If we fail to stop it, well...we simply can't let that happen.
Thank you to the people in the photo, and the thousands they represent. My heart is with the suffering victims of this terrifying disease.
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