The Latest Ebola Outbreak Worries Me
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/world/africa/ebola-congo-tedros-rubio.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/world/africa/congo-ebola-testing.html?searchResultPosition=1
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/opinion/ebola-outbreak-virus-spread-usaid.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/24/world/africa/ebola-virus-congo-response.html?searchResultPosition=1
According to the leader of the World Health Organization (article one), a group that was forced to cut its budget by $500 million when the United States withdrew its membership, the latest Ebola outbreak will be contained to the region surrounding its epicenter in the Democratic Republic of Congo (see article two). I am less confident (see article three).
After our experience with and poor response to Covid, and the fact that there are no treatments for or vaccines against this unusual strain of the virus, Ebola Bundibugyo, it is my contention that we need to shut our borders now to any in-coming people from the areas where the virus is still spreading or to anyone who has even visited the area. American citizens returning from parts of Africa where cases have been identified should be quarantined until the incubation period is over. No exceptions. No slip-ups. I fear that the four airports designated to screen people in-coming from the affected areas in Africa will make an error. There can be no errors in this case.
In the latest article from the region (article four), an official is quoted as saying: “the virus is far ahead of us, and it’s spreading.” The discovery of the outbreak was, perhaps, two months delayed. The region was unprepared, without vital needs and supplies like protective equipment. The cuts to American aid also may have delayed the response to this contagion. There are likely 1000 cases and over 200 deaths already. Hand sanitizer can no longer be found and there are only a limited number of tests being run for this unusual strain of Ebola which has only been seen two other times. It is 40% fatal.
Despite some criticism that the CDC was not up to speed in responding to the hantavirus on the cruise ship, it seemed to me that the world and the US responded well to that crisis and contained the disease. Admittedly, hantavirus is far harder to spread than either Ebola or Covid, but it looked to me that the needed resources were brought to bear on the potentially infected people and further dissemination seems unlikely.
Ebola is far different. It spreads rapidly and easily and kills often. That there is not a US national plan in place once a single case is identified in Africa is shameful. The Obama Administration had plans drawn up for disasters like highly contagious infectious diseases. During the 2016 transition, the Trump people threw it out. I have heard no news that a new one has been devised. Furthermore, our entire Department of Health and Human Services has been decimated by Secretary Kennedy who has some rather untraditional ideas about disease, vaccines, and therapeutics. Kennedy has overseen Elon Musk’s stripping of vital infrastructure (i.e., knowledgeable people) at the NIH, CDC, and the FDA. We simply are a country ill-prepared for another pandemic and no longer the leader in biomedical research due to a lack of the will and foresight to fund it.
The Trump Administration has made the prevention of illegals entering the country a high priority. Ebola entering the country would be far worse than 50,000 people from south of the border. We know how fast the disease can spread and we know that it is highly lethal. While I am sympathetic to the plight of the American surgeon who contracted the virus in Africa, but was flown to Germany for treatment, it might have been wiser to fly the treatment to him. The Trump Administration is finally doing just that in Kenya.
These viral contagions that arise in foreign countries, usually in Africa, must be kept out of the United States. Unfortunately, there is little room for sympathy here and no room for error. It is also a very bad idea to have had the United States withdraw from the WHO, let alone stop funding efforts to combat HIV in Africa through the now defunct USAID.
It is likely these viruses arise in Africa for reasons of which I am unaware other than the uniqueness of the African fauna, the fauna’s genome’s proximity to ours, and the ability of these viruses to spread around the world via airplanes. My understanding is that is the hypothesized origins of HIV in America.
Ebola cannot be allowed into the US under any circumstances. Establishing a care center with the latest high-tech equipment in Africa and making it available to all who need it is a far wiser investment than not being at the table with the WHO and trying to play catch-up when one of our citizens is infected in Africa by bringing the patient to a care site in the country.
It may be unlikely that this Ebola outbreak is a threat to the rest of the world. We need to take the rigorous steps to make sure that is true and we needed to make them yesterday.
For how many different kinds of disasters—infectious, climactic, or man-made do we have to continue to be unready?
