Friday, May 18, 2018

[U X2] We Await Word, Now -- On Whether WHO Has Declared 2018 DRC Ebola Outbreak "Of International Concern"...


UPDATED -- 06.07.2018 @ 10 AM EDT: Wisely, the Trump Administration has decided to reverse the funding cut of $252 million it earlier ordered, related to Ebola outbreak funding. End, update.

The WHO body responsible for making the determination -- as to whether the outbreak should be upgraded from a "regional" concern, to an international one -- based on the two cases inside the riverport city of Mbandaka. . . is meeting as I type this.

We should know in a few hours. An upgrade would release additional NGO and EU funding -- but the US is largely on the sidelines on this one (either way), due to Mr. Trump's early 2018 cuts at CDC (for international pandemic responses) and last week's singularly ill-timed cuts to Ebola aid, generally (eliminated $250 million).

Even so -- we will remain hopeful -- that the vaccine is now quickly, and widely, deployed -- in the riverport city of over a million souls. Onward, on a clear cool Friday. . . let's be better to one another. . . than our president is. Much better.

UPDATED: at days end, the WHO officials have decided (for now) they will not escalate the 2018 Congo outbreak's designation, as it hasn't crossed a geopolitical border as yet.

नमस्ते

1 comment:

condor said...

Still struggling to contain the Mbandaka chain:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/three-ebola-patients-slip-congo-132249872.html

Namaste...