The New York Daily News – a newspaper which endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 (not in 2012) has a editorial today – buttressed by a remarkably blunt front page – that should be required reading for anyone who thinks the Obama administration is handling the ebola crisis in any way capably.
Here are excerpts from the editorial (which you can read by clicking here – and I hope you do):
TheAmerican health-care system\’s failure to prepare for Ebola becameeven more terrifyingly evident with the revelation that a Dallasnurse traveled by air after treating a patient who ultimately diedfrom the virus.
Stillstruggling to get command of the country\’s response to Ebola morethan six months after the current outbreak started in West Africa,Centers for Disease Control Director Thomas Frieden was left to spellout a principle that should have been set weeks or months ago – andbacked up with stringent enforcement.
“Sheshould not have traveled, should not have been allowed to travel byvirtue she was in an exposed group,” he said obviously.
Lateron Wednesday, after cancelling a congressional campaign trip toConnecticut, President Obama said that the U.S. would become moreaggressive in coordinating the national response to Ebola, includingsending a CDC team to any hospital with a confirmed Ebola case.
But,by stopping short of issuing mandatory protocols, the President againfell back on the catch-as-catch-can system that produced suchdisastrous results in Dallas. He did so at the peril of health-careproviders and the public – because trust that individual hospitalshere, there and everywhere would perform superbly is decidedlymisplaced.
Friedenacknowledged that he erred badly in assuming that virtually anyhospital could stop the spread of Ebola by following properprotocols. Cluelessness about those protocols appears to remainwidespread.
NeitherObama nor Frieden had the sense to issue directives with the firm,clear quality of standards sought by National Nurses United,representing thousands of nurses across the country.
And here is the front page:
How I wish I could find something to argue about there. But I can\’t.
And who is at fault for the woeful too-little-too-late response to ebola (and just about everything else)?
We are.
We elected, and then re-elected, a Chicago machine politician, with no qualifications for the presidency, who was in 100 miles over his head from the start, and has barely budged from there since.
Why should we have expected anything more?
What a horrible mistake we made. And what a horror that we made it twice.
Have we learned enough never to make the same mistake again? I despair that the answer very well might be no.
