As the world learned in 2014, early action against a pandemic is absolutely critical to save lives. In the Ebola outbreak that year, the global response was abysmal and lethargic. The virus killed 11,314 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. This is why specialists are worried about a new outbreak in Congo, first discovered in a remote area but now at the doorstep of Mbandaka, a city of 1.2 million, where one case has been confirmed. This is not yet a wildfire, but rapid response is the best way to make sure it does not become one.
The World Health Organization came in for justified criticism after the 2014 pandemic. A subsequent study found that it fell down on all of its core functions: helping nations build health-care capacity, providing early warning, establishing technical norms and mobilizing resources.
It is too easy to dismiss this as a faraway problem. In a world of globalized transportation, dangerous pathogens do not stop at passport control. What has long been needed is to treat Ebola and other pandemic risks like the singular national security danger they are, and to install a prominent coordinator who is devoted to marshaling resources for combating them beforethey wreak havoc on a wide scale. This was also a lesson of 2014. Have we not learned it?
Editorial on 05/22/2018