United States President Barack Obama speaks to the media after holding a meeting with his newly-appointed ‘Ebola Response Coordinator’ Ron Klain Barack Obama meets with Ron Klain, Washington D.C, America – 22 Oct 2014 It is Klain’s first day as the administration’s so-called ‘ebola czar.’ President Obama also spoke about the tragic shooting in Ottawa, Canada earlier in the day (Rex Features via AP Images)
Shepard Smith, a proud graduate of The University of Mississippi, released a video about the fear-inciting rhetoric surrounding Ebola in the United States, and he could not have been more accurate.
He did some adequate fact-dropping; at the time of his broadcast, two health professionals had contracted Ebola from a dying physician who had been working in West Africa. Since this broadcast, one additional physician, who was also working in West Africa with Doctors Without Borders, has been diagnosed with Ebola and is stable.
Smith asserted, “There is no outbreak of Ebola in the United States, anywhere.” That remains true.
He briefly mentions the politicization of the Ebola virus, which has only heightened since his broadcast. Ebola has paralyzed much of the country with fear, especially those vulnerable to talking-head radio personalities and who shamelessly and unknowingly share articles from satirical news websites.
After the second case of Ebola diagnosed on American soil was announced, President Barack Obama announced he would appoint an Ebola “czar”— a government official whose sole job is to stop the spread of Ebola in America and abroad. Despite creating a position to deal with this national emergency after only two people who had not first traveled to West Africa – both of whom treated an Ebola patient – were diagnosed, articles swirled with titles such as, “Is Ebola Obama’s Katrina?”
Short answer: hardly.
There exists a myriad of criticisms of the Obama presidency; this “delayed” response to Ebola is not one.
Never mind the hypocrisy found in the lack of criticism or admittance from conservative politicians of President Reagan, who did many things right, but failed gravely on the health epidemic of his time – AIDS. Despite knowledge of the epidemic since its beginnings in 1981, Reagan refused to mention the crisis on television or commit substantial federal dollars until 1987. Only after more than 36,000 Americans had been infected and more than 20,000 had died did Reagan finally mention AIDS at the end of his second term and take federal action.
Why? Because AIDS was politicized too.
Gays were receiving the rightful punishment for their actions; who was Reagan to save the gays from God’s wrath? How many people could have been saved to this day had early action been taken? The danger of politicizing a killer disease is very real.
The politicization of Ebola and political backlash are far from over.
After Czar Ron Klain, a political insider and former vice presidential chief of staff, was appointed, articles hit the press again, asserting “We Are Doomed.” Francis Collins, director of the National Institute of Health and celebrated non-partisan, made a seemingly uncontroversial assertion that the NIH’s budget cuts slashed funding for Ebola research from $37 million in 2010 to $10 million in 2014 and added that a vaccine could have been likely if not for the cuts. He told the truth.
Conservatives pounced. Rand Paul mocked the NIH’s other budgetary commitments, and Michelle Malkin called him a “fool.” Collins was also dismayed at liberal groups’ ad campaigns, featuring signs that say “Republican Cuts Kill.” Collins, a person who was fighting Ebola before you ever cared, is now a victim of the hysteria.
Who else is a victim of the mania?
Midterm elections.
Conservatives have raced to combine the topics of illegal immigration, the threat of the Islamic State (ISIS) and Ebola into a behemoth for midterm elections, despite the denouncement from health experts. Fanatic radio hosts want you to believe ISIS members plan to wage biological warfare with Ebola by crossing our Southern border. They want you to believe that immigrants will flood into this country carrying Ebola and create a pandemic, which health professionals and border officials have condemned as false.
This is not about Ebola – know that.
This is about morphing Ebola and American fear to impact already existing policy objectives.
There is no Ebola outbreak in America, and health professionals and the government are working diligently to keep it that way.
Pray, sympathize or donate money to Ebola relief in West Africa, whose people are suffering from a legitimate outbreak but do not participate in the Ebola hysteria in the U.S.
While politicians vie for your vote with scare tactics, real people are dying. Do not hide your xenophobia or general political ideology behind the lives of West Africans.
Zachery Newton is a senior international studies and public policy leadership major from Picayune.
