Ebola and the US Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ebola and the US Response - Essay Example This was highlighted when the first Ebola cases were reported in Texas and New York. Despite the mad scramble for some semblance of coherent response, the government’s policy appears to be uncoordinated, unprepared and inadequate. Perhaps the appropriate development that could best define the government’s response to Ebola was when President’s Barack Obama appointed Ron Klain as the â€Å"Ebola Czar†. Klain does not hold any medical degree because he is a political operative. His appointment was supposed to help the government navigate through the intricacies of the bureaucracy, coordinating various federal and state agencies to solve the problem. His political acumen was also expected to effectively articulate governmental policy and response. Unfortunately, this move reflects an erroneous strategy that appears to approach the issue from the political point of view, keeping the focus from the medical and the scientific. It sends the wrong message, contributing to public hysteria because it appears that the government is not taking matters seriously. Indeed, there are already public officials who are undermining the federal response to the problem such as New Jersey Governor Chris Christi e, who have imposed stricter quarantine guidelines (Sanchez & Cohen, 2014). The case would have been different had an expert was appointed to the post. Any policy pronouncement would be credible and authoritative. There are several implications to the inadequate and confused government response. First, there is the case of the quarantine, which could impinge on people’s civil liberties. The federal government appears to be delegating much of policymaking in this area to the states. Benjamin Hayes, the Center for Disease Control spokesman, was quoted as saying, â€Å"We don’t have the authority to tell the states what to do when travelers end up in their states†¦ We set the base guidelines, and the states have the choice to tighten those guidelines† (Dizard, 2014).