US to send 3,000 Ebola-fighters to West Africa

This morning’s radio news says they will build facilities and train people to deal with Ebola patients, several hundred a week.

Ebola Surge: Obama to Announce Military-Led Fight

NBC says,

Pesident Barack Obama will announce a major military-led surge in U.S. aid to fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa later Tuesday, with as many as 3,000 troops to help organize, train new health care workers and build treatment clinics.

The Defense Department will divert $500 million for the effort, which will include building 17 treatment centers with 100 beds apiece, dedicating 10,000 sets of personal protective equipment and distributing supplies such as disinfectant and hand sanitizer to help 400,000 families protect themselves and care for sick family members.

"The Ebola epidemic in West Africa and the humanitarian crisis there is a top national security priority for the United States," the White House said in a statement. Obama will announce details when he visits the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

. . . . .

The U.S. Africa Command will train as many as 500 new health care workers a week for six months and longer if needed. WHO and aid groups such as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders) have said medical staff are by far the greatest need.

. . . . .

Eventually, the U.S. will supply hundreds of thousands of the needed sets of personal protective equipment — which include full body suits, gloves, boots, goggles and masks to protect health care workers from the virus. Families will get smaller kits.

"In partnership with the United Nations Children Fund, the Paul Allen Family Foundation, and other key partners, we will immediately target the 400,000 most vulnerable households in Liberia," the White House said.

"As part of this effort, this week, USAID will airlift 50,000 home health care kits from Denmark to Liberia to be hand-delivered to distant communities by trained youth volunteers."

. . . . .

Later Tuesday, the Senate Health and Appropriations committees will hold a joint hearing on Ebola. Speakers will include Dr. Kent Brantly, the medical missionary who was infected with Ebola and survived after a dramatic evacuation; Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and Robin Robinson, who heads the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

Faster, please. More and faster.

Update, later that same day.

Conservatives are really steamed that O has sent specialized military units to help cope with the Ebola crisis but won't send combat troops to open up a ground war again in Iraq, this time against ISIS.

In my view, he should do more about Ebola and less - very nearly nothing, in fact - about ISIS.