Was Ebola Handled in the Wrong Way?

The World Health Organization (WHO) is being criticized by the global health experts. It seems to be that the WHO mishandled the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The WHO is the most popular organization to criticize because of the way it was handled. They found out about the outbreak, and they knew about the very contagious spread of it in the spring of 2015. It wasn't until August of 2015 that they declared a "public health emergency". The cost of the delay was very large, which did not help the cause. A WHO spokesperson said that they had been spending their time reading reports and helping different organizations.

I think that they should've been quicker to help and I don't think that it should have taken them 4 months to declare it a "public health emergency."

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If you worked at WHO, how would you defend yourself for this mishap?

Just now finding out about this, do you think they could've changed the outcomes of some lives from Ebola? Why or why not?

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  • Good job Lexi!

  • I think that Ebola was handled the right way. You don't want to try and fix the problem right away cause you might not know what you are doing You could easily get infected yourself.

    • But, if they handled it right away, maybe they could have prevented other people from getting it. They may have found a cure sooner.

  • I don't think I could defend myself. It's wrong to withhold that kind of information from the world when it's something that serious. I don't think there would've been too many lives saved if they would have announced it earlier. Many people were still infected and there was no way to stop that.

  • I would've declared it a health emergency even if I wasn't sure that it was because it's better to be safe than sorry. I understand that you can't do this all the time because then you'll be like the boy who cried wolf, but it could've saved lives if it was really that bad. 

    • I totally agree with you. I think they should've announced it when it first broke out because it would've helped prepare people better.

  • I would say that we were trying to decide if it was even a big deal, and not let everyone get so worried. But they should have told everyone so they could haven taken more precaution, and not been traveling in that area. I believe so, because if they would have made it known sooner, it may not have gotten to the US. People should have been checked to see if they were in West Africa before boarding the planes. 

    • Yes, I agree. I also think they should have announced earlier that they were delaying this and the reasons for it. I think it was worse that they chose to keep it a secret and then let everyone find out the hard way.

  • I would say we messed up and that we need our top man fired for this mishap. If I was the top man I would find a lame excuse that society would take so I could keep my job, just like every other politician does.

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