Darryl Williams to lead 3,000 troops in ‘War on Ebola,’ Lamar Alexander compares it to ISIS
President Obama has announced the new plan to combat Ebola with troops deployed to Liberia, Africa to set up a command center and oversee 3,000 troops to assist with training new health workers and setting up new facilities.
Major General Darryl A. Williams will head the operation, mentioned by the President in his speech.
Ebola virus Image/CDC
“He just arrived today and is now on the ground in Liberia,” Obama said of Williams and “Operation Unified Assistance” on Tuesday. “And our forces are going to bring their expertise in command and control, in logistics, in engineering.”
Nicknamed the “War on Ebola,” President Obama has declared that the epidemic in West Africa and the humanitarian crisis there is a top national security priority for the United States. In order to contain and combat it, we are partnering with the United Nations and other international partners to help the Governments of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal respond just as we fortify our defenses at home.
“Every outbreak of Ebola over the past 40 years has been contained, and we are confident that this one can—and will be—as well.”
The strategy is “predicated on four key goals:”
· Controlling the epidemic at its source in West Africa;
· Mitigating second-order impacts, including blunting the economic, social, and political tolls in the region;
· Engaging and coordinating with a broader global audience; and
· Fortifying global health security infrastructure in the region and beyond.
U.S. Senate held an Ebola hearing that featured testimony from leading public health officials and perhaps the world’s most famous Ebola survivor, Kent Brantly, who became ill with the disease while treating patients in Liberia in July. “We must take the deadly dangerous threat of the Ebola epidemic as seriously as we take ISIS [Islamic State in Iraq and Syria],” said Senator Lamar Alexander (R–TN).
[…] Lamar Alexander compares Ebola outbreak to ISIS […]