A former Bush Administration health policy official cautions people against misdiagnosing themselves with Ebola and becoming “the worried well” that can overburden our health care system.
But with the upcoming flu season, Tevi Troy, the President of the American Health Policy Institute, worries that President Obama has performed in a way to cause, rather than reduce, Ebola panic.
By providing inaccurate information early on, President Obama has “failed public health 101.” Panic can be spread when citizens lose faith that their government is providing credible information in a crisis situation. Troy details the “hiccups” of the Ebola crisis in this exclusive Daily Caller video interview.
To Troy, President Obama alienates Congress by being overly “political” — as he is apt to use “heavy-handed” approaches.
Some critics are casting the president’s global Ebola efforts as another example of Obama placing his ideological global agenda over American interests. Troy disagrees and supports the president’s slow, but important efforts in Africa using our military. While Troy admits he worries about our porous borders, he believes “America is safe, secure and prosperous” enough to export our military to address this health crisis in Africa before it spreads further.
While it is true that “sending our military to West Africa will expose them to danger” from the virus, he is reassured that the military has quarantine options if they become exposed to the disease.
Reminding viewers of existing government programs and spending for Ebola, Troy says, “there are many pieces of the government, not just HHS, that mobilize to deal with the kind of issues we are having.”
The appointment of Ron Klain as Ebola Czar has struck some as “perception management,” rather than actual risk management.
Troy mentions officials like Dr. Nicole Lurie, who he, and others call surprisingly “invisible” — especially since her position is designed to manage a crisis just like this one.
Other officials involved include many at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes for Health, the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon, State Department, U.S. AID and the Food and Drug Administration. Troy reminds us that NIH “had progress with an Ebola vaccine with monkeys back in 2000,” so he wonders why more progress is not apparent in 2014.
More from Tevi Troy on Ebola and public policy can be found here, here and here.
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