Obama says he’s ‘optimistic’ that Ebola in U.S. is contained
By Bloomberg
President Barack Obama said he's "cautiously more optimistic" that the U.S. has been able to contain Ebola as more people who had contact with the first patient in the country show no signs of infection.
All U.S. hospitals should be fully prepared to handle any additional cases in the coming weeks and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will continue to evaluate medical protocols and new restrictions, Obama said today.
Speaking at the White House after meeting with White House Ebola response coordinator Ron Klain, whose first day on the job was today, Obama again sought to reassure the American public that they weren't at high risk.
"I want to emphasize again, this is a very hard disease to get," Obama said. "And in a country like the United States that has a strong public health infrastructure and outstanding health workers and hospitals and systems, the prospect of an outbreak here is extremely low."
Today is the first day that travelers arriving in the U.S from one of the three countries hardest hit by Ebola are required to enter through one of five airports with enhanced screening intended to keep people who may have been exposed to the virus from spreading it in the U.S.
Military Response
The Defense Department also is putting together a 30-person medical team -- 20 nurses, five doctors trained in infectious disease and five protocol trainers -- that can be dispatched on short-notice to assist U.S. civilian medical personnel if more Ebola cases are diagnosed.
The U.S. is focusing on containing the outbreak in West Africa, where the Pentagon is sending as many as 4,000 personnel to help with logistics, set up field hospitals and train local health workers.
Klain is a lawyer and former White House official who the president asked last week to leave the private sector and lead the administration's Ebola response. He has no staff yet and the White House has declined to say how much he's being paid.
While fear of Ebola has gripped the U.S., Klain's job will focus on tamping the outbreak at its source in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Domestically, part of Klain's job will include deciding whether to ask Congress for more money to address Ebola.
"I wouldn't set a timeline on a decision that we would make on our end about additional resources," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said today at a briefing. "This is something that we're looking at."
The administration has pledged to devote more than $1 billion to the Ebola response, most of it from the Defense Department. So far, the U.S. has obligated about $311 million, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
The Senate Appropriations Committee plans a hearing on Ebola funding on Nov. 6.