#Ebola Update: What's the Next Move Secretary #Burwell?

by Kim D.

Since Thomas Eric Duncan died of Ebola that he brought with him from Liberia, a second case of this deadly disease has been confirmed in Texas. A nurse who worked closely with Duncan started showing symptoms on Friday, and by Sunday, testing confirmed that she is the first person to contract Ebola in the United States. 

The CDC Director immediately cast suspicion on a failure in protocol. After all, the nurse was wearing the protective gear necessary to avoid contracting Ebola. The fact that she has contracted the disease must be her fault for not following correct procedure.  Or, could it be that US hospitals and health care workers are not adequately prepared to deal with the dangers associated with treating Ebola patients?

"You don't scapegoat and blame when you have a disease outbreak," Bonnie Castillo of National Nurses United told Reuters on Sunday. "We have a system failure. That is what we have to correct." 

"We haven't provided [caregivers] with a national training program. We haven't provided them with the necessary experts that have actually worked in hospitals with Ebola," said Dr. Gavin McGregor-Skinner of Penn State University, an expert in public health preparedness. 

Separately, some have raised concerns that no single person or agency is in charge of the U.S. response. 

No single person? The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sylvia Burwell, is in charge. She oversees the CDC and is responsible for advising the president on necessary action to protect American citizens from health-related dangers. On Friday, the day the Dallas nurse started exhibiting Ebola-like symptoms, Burwell held a press conference in which she declared the process of treating Duncan, a success. According to Sharyl Attkisson,

At a White House briefing today, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell declared, “These processes work.” She was referring to the systems in place since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa last March.

Since this new case in Dallas is definite proof that the processes in place do not work, Americans should be demanding that Secretary Burwell clearly define her next move to ensure everything humanly possible is being done to stop Ebola outbreaks in the United States. Her phone call to the president before he hit the golf course on Sunday, a discussion that reportedly lasted approximately 40 seconds, is not instilling confidence that the administration is taking the Ebola danger seriously.

President Obama talks on the phone with @HHSGov Secretary Burwell concerning the latest update on #Ebola. pic.twitter.com/TBTrTFPpl5
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 12, 2014