The Ebola epidemic still rages in West Africa

Lest we think the Ebola epidemic in West Africa has been licked, the latest statistics from the US Center for Disease Control is 18,000 down with the disease & nearly 6,500 deaths. The lack of media coverage is appalling & damning. If those statistics prevailed in France or Germany or the US–or any country deemed white by those who live in the past–the news would be front page.

It was reported in early November that over 300 health care workers had died from Ebola. This raises some questions. Of the handful of health care workers flown out of West Africa to hospitals in the US, Switzerland, Spain only one has died in addition to Thomas Duncan, the Liberian visitor to the US who died in a Dallas hospital. One question is, who decides which health care workers get to stay & die in West Africa & which ones get flown out for elite care? And a second question is, why aren’t the treatments so effective in the US, Switzerland, Spain being made available to people in West Africa?

The CDC & FDA can blither on about the protocols & expense of testing drugs for the mass market but anyone who watches TV knows of at least a half-dozen class action suits at any given time for drugs that killed or permanently incapacitated people. Did they get to bypass the protocols & fast-track their way to fortune?

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