President Barack Obama declared Tuesday that the Ebola epidemic in West Africa could threaten security around the world, and he ordered 3,000 US military personnel to the region in emergency aid muscle for a crisis spiraling out of control. The question was whether the aid would be enough and was coming in time. An ominous World Health Organization forecast said that with so many people now getting infected with the virus, the number of Ebola cases could start doubling every three weeks.
“If the outbreak is not stopped now, we could be looking at hundreds of thousands of people affected, with profound economic, political and security implications for all of us,” Obama said. He called on other countries to join in quickly supplying more health workers, equipment and money. By day’s end the administration asked Congress to shift another $500m in Pentagon money to the effort, meaning the US could end up devoting $1bn to contain the outbreak.
“It’s a potential threat to global security if these countries break down,” Obama said, speaking of the hardest-hit nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. At least 2,400 people have died, with Liberia bearing the brunt. The US is promising to deliver 17 hundred-bed treatment centers to Liberia, where contagious patients often sit in the streets, turned away from packed Ebola units.
“This massive ramp-up of support from the United States is precisely the kind of transformational change we need to get a grip on the outbreak and begin to turn it around,” said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan. Doctors Without Borders, which has sounded the alarm for months, also welcomed the US effort but said it must be put into action immediately — and that other countries must follow suit because the window to contain the virus is closing.
But some lawmakers questioned if the heightened US response will be enough.
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said, “My math says we’re going to be behind the eight ball on Day 1 because we won’t have enough beds.”
