Doctors Without Borders Chief: US Ebola Aid 'Insufficient'

Insufficient and poorly planned may be the simple unbiased truth here FF....
no offense...but it seems that the outbreak has been taken far too lightly by the whole rest of the world.....
Therefore rendering the aid sent by America and others "insufficient".
I am sure the gratitude is muted by frustration somewhat...pity that theres not more white people dying of this and the aid would be flowing more freely I suspect....
Not that I really wish that...merely an observation.....
Anyways before anyone gets too insulted consider the aid sent by all the rest of the whole freaking world to be "insufficient......"

a reply to: FlyersFan

i bet part of it is...they are building these centers and there is no one to man them...so why even build them in the first place? I bet everyone was assuming there would be more support over there in general and now they will be stuck with all this infrastructure and no one there to use it.

Hell Cuba sent a bunch of doctors....if only america could team up with them I bet they'd get quite a bit done.

Insufficent... of course, how can they save people from all over the world, and not save their own souls at home...

BTW, my comment was addressed to the government , not my fellow everyday americans.....

Wait what, by 'everyday' I mean people, not what some of you were thinking I said..hmm...

no need to get Hoytee Toytee at me, I just talk in circles, but I eventually arrive at the centr

a reply to: stirling

pity that theres not more white people dying of this and the aid would be flowing more freely I suspect....

Funny to say that. Like China or Saudi Arabia is run by white people.

Saudi Arabia could easily be financing the cause of the outbreak....Daddy Bush and others in the high circles of US government owe them a whole bunch.....
maybe the Saudis and The US bio war people are working to depopulate Africa......
How would we know?
This stuff just gets dirtier the more you dig at it....
Turns out there really IS an evil cabal that's creating most of the misery world wide....
The ones trying to stem the tide can hardly be blamed for recriminations.....

I can fully understand your disarray FF but I think you have to have a two sided view here :

Doctors without borders having been volunteering and are implanted in many countries for many years... Doctors without borders (MSF) are a non governmental organisation depending ONLY on donations and volunteer staff.

When you are a VOLUNTEER organisation and you are desperate for help :

World leaders are failing to address the worst ever Ebola epidemic, and states with biological-disaster response capacity, including civilian and military medical capability, must immediately dispatch assets and personnel to West Africa, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced today in a special briefing at the United Nations organized by the office of the UN Secretary General and the World Health Organization (WHO). In a speech delivered to UN member states, MSF International President Dr. Joanne Liu denounced the lack of deployment of resources, which has to date relied on overstretched ministries of health and private nongovernmental organizations to tackle the exceptionally large outbreak. Despite repeated calls by MSF for a massive mobilization on the ground, the international response has been lethally inadequate. Transmission rates have reached levels never before reported in past Ebola outbreaks, and the further spread of the virus will not be prevented without a massive deployment of specialized medical units to bolster epidemic control efforts in affected countries.

More here : www.doctorswithoutborders.org...

MSF has sent more than 700 international staff to the region

More here : www.doctorswithoutborders.org...

They have been asking... "begging" even for a very long time that the worlds powers step in to help them out... but to no avail apart from the odd "smaller" country or two... :

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations African affairs subcommittee, applauded the new US commitment. Coons earlier had called for the Obama administration to step up its role in West Africa.

The Obama administration said this :

Obama’s trip to the CDC comes a day after the United States also demanded a stepped-up international response to the outbreak. The US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, on Monday called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday, warning that the potential risk of the virus could “set the countries of West Africa back a generation.”

Admin officials in the USA said this was the goal :

— Train as many as 500 health care workers a week. — Erect 17 heath care facilities in the region with 100 beds each.

— Set up a joint command headquartered in Monrovia, Liberia, to coordinate between US and international relief efforts.

— Provide home health care kits to hundreds of thousands of households, including 50,000 that the US Agency for International Development will deliver to Liberia this week.

— Carry out a home- and community-based campaign to train local populations on how to handle exposed patients.

The USA is NOT the only country helping to combat this crisis... here is a graphic from 20th October 2014 :



Although this is only financial aid, many volunteers as well as military personal from other countries are also helping to combat this situation... The USA has sent more personel as they have the largest military response team in the world...

Other countries just DO NOT have the same military capacity.

More here : www.independent.co.uk... tml

And this extremely emotional letter to the world from Liberias president :

Dear World In just over six months, Ebola has managed to bring my country to a standstill. We have lost over 2,000 Liberians. Some are children struck down in the prime of their youth. Some were fathers, mothers, brothers or best friends. Many were brave health workers that risked their lives to save others, or simply offer victims comfort in their final moments… There is no coincidence Ebola has taken hold in three fragile states – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – all battling to overcome the effects of interconnected wars. In Liberia, our civil war ended only eleven years ago. It destroyed our public infrastructure, crushed our economy and led to an exodus of educated professionals. A country that had some 3,000 qualified doctors at the start of the war was dependent by its end on barely three dozen. In the last few years, Liberia was bouncing back. We realized there was a long way to go, but the future was looking bright.Now Ebola threatens to erase that hard work. Our economy was set to be larger and stronger this year, offering more jobs to Liberians and raising living standards. Ebola is not just a health crisis – across West Africa, a generation of young people risk being lost to an economic catastrophe as harvests are missed, markets are shut and borders are closed.The virus has been able to spread so rapidly because of the insufficient strength of the emergency, medical and military services that remain under-resourced and without the preparedness to confront such a challenge. This would have been the case whether the confrontation was with Ebola, another infectious disease, or a natural disaster.But one thing is clear. This is a fight in which the whole world has a stake. This disease respects no borders. The damage it is causing in West Africa, whether in public health, the economy or within communities – is already reverberating throughout the region and across the world.The international reaction to this crisis was initially inconsistent and lacking in clear direction or urgency. Now finally, the world has woken up. The community of nations has realized they cannot simply pull up the drawbridge and wish this situation away.This fight requires a commitment from every nation that has the capacity to help – whether that is with emergency funds, medical supplies or clinical expertise.I have every faith in our resilience as Liberians, and our capacity as global citizens, to face down this disease, beat it and rebuild. History has shown that when a people are at their darkest hour, humanity has an enviable ability to act with bravery, compassion and selflessness for the benefit of those most in need.From governments to international organisations, financial institutions to NGOs, politicians to ordinary people on the street in any corner of the world, we all have a stake in the battle against Ebola. It is the duty of all of us, as global citizens, to send a message that we will not leave millions of West Africans to fend for themselves against an enemy that they do not know, and against whom they have little defence.The time for talking or theorizing is over. Only concerted action will save my country, and our neighbours, from experiencing another national tragedy. The words of Henrik Ibsen have never been truer: “A thousand words leave not the same deep impression as does a single deed. Yours sincerely, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Full story here : www.independent.co.ug...

Continued below...

Continued from my last post :

Doctors without Borders are doing their darned best to combat this situation and depend on the WORLD to help them out...

I can clearly understand that MSF had said that "PROMISED" actions are "insufficient" ...

Please do not forget that the USA is not the only country providing help.

A great site to visit is the one below in order to have an open view of what is actually going on:

www.un.org...#&panel1-1

EACH COUNTRY WHO IS PROVIDING HELP RIGHT NOW IS PROVIDING THAT HELP EITHER BECAUSE THEY CAN AFFORD TO and want to look good to the international community OR BECAUSE OF POLITICS... (That is... Apart from the odd one or two smaller countries in my opinion...)

Kindest respects

Rodinus

a reply to: FlyersFan

Not a saudi fan here.

But how are they in west africa neibourhood?

originally posted by: FlyersFan

The following is my opinion as a member participating in this discussion.

originally posted by: Rodinus
Other countries just DO NOT have the same military capacity.

I hear you but other countries DO have the resources to help. We aren't the only ones. China and Russia have doctors and military who could be helping. Saudi Arabia has the $$$. For Doctors Without Borders to be 'critical' and say basically say America isn't stepping up .... that's irksome. They should be saying 'thank you' to us while hitting up other countries for help as well. IMHO

As an ATS Staff Member, I will not moderate in threads such as this where I have participated as a member.

I understand you FF...

However :

China have done so and not that much has been discussed about their participation in MSM, I cannot find the figures but here is a little snippet from Reuters :

China will dispatch an elite unit from the People's Liberation Army to help Ebola-hit Liberia, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday, responding to U.N. calls for a greater global effort to fight the deadly virus in West Africa. Washington has led the international drive to stop the spread of the disease that has killed nearly 5,000 people, sending thousands of troops and committing about $1 billion, but Beijing has faced criticism for not doing enough. The PLA squad, which has experience from a 2002 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), will build a 100-bed treatment centre in Liberia, the first such facility in the three countries most impacted by Ebola to be constructed and run by a foreign country, said Lin Songtian, director general of the ministry's Department of African Affairs. The centre will be open for operation in a month's time, he told a briefing in Beijing. China will also dispatch 480 PLA medical staff to treat Ebola patients, he said. It's the first time China has deployed a whole unit of epidemic prevention forces and military medical staff abroad, Lin said.

More here : www.reuters.com...

Then I found this :

Meanwhile, the Russian military said the first of two transport planes carrying the components of a field hospital had left for Guinea on November 16.

Link here : www.rferl.org...

And then this :

MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/. Russian virologists who are staying in Guinea to fight Ebola fever are expanding their work and will continue fighting the virus at one more hospital, the chief of Russian consumer standards agency told TASS on Friday. “This is planned that our specialists will keep working not only with a hospital in the capital of the Republic of Guinea, but also with another one which is being built 50 kilometres away,” chief of the country’s consumer rights watchdog Anna Popova said, noting that “Our specialists plan to co-operate there with Cuban partners. They have already met and are developing further working tactics.” Russian epidemiologists have been staying in Guinea since August 22. They will keep working in that country until it is needed, she said. The first team of specialists has been fully replaced now, Popova noted.

More here : itar-tass.com...

Although this is a Russian website, I think that we should take this into consideration no?

More info here from the same site but also talking about other countries who are helping as best as they can :

itar-tass.com...

Both the countries above tend not to "blab and boast" if I may say so compared to other countries about how big or how much they are or spending in general when it comes to humanitary aid. (I am expecting to be flamed by certain members of our community for this comment...)

I am absolutely sure that MSF have thanked the USA for the help that they have proposed in their own way and given via internal means...

BUT as you know, MSM are wallet driven and will write whatever gets peoples attention and provokes emotional reactions....

Kindest respects

Rodinus

originally posted by: FlyersFan

The following is my opinion as a member participating in this discussion.

originally posted by: stirling
but it seems that the outbreak has been taken far too lightly by the whole rest of the world.....
Therefore rendering the aid sent by America and others "insufficient".

That's just it. They didn't say 'others'. They said they were critical of our aid and it was insufficient. Instead of saying thanks and asking others to help, they just slammed America and demanded more. It doesn't sit well with me. We aren't the only country on the planet. Others have resources and more money. Ask THEM instead of just demanding from us.

As an ATS Staff Member, I will not moderate in threads such as this where I have participated as a member.

It's always "Yankee go home," unless they are directly benefitted then it's "give us more you selfish SOB." Dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. Other countries want the US to stay out of affairs but they certainly want our money and aid.

America can't give enough, can it? Between illegal immigration eating up our resources and aid to other countries the world is bleeding us dry. BUT GIVE MORE.

Soon there will be no more to give. Then the world will really be f'd.

To the rest of the planet: I hope you're happy you're destroying the American dream.

Because of their population/close proximity India is far more vulnerable than the US yet they're at the bottom of the donation list.

Seems I read a few years back India was buying up as much gold as possible. Guess they want to keep it but we're the greedy slackers.

We built the facilities let India or other countries, staff them. Maybe India doesn't have the military capacity of the US but they train doctors. Lots of Indian doctors here in the US.

a reply to: FlyersFan

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is just a non-profit, and does not represent any nation - they're just (still) begging for help. Here are a few more facts:

1. China has had hospitals, doctors and medical workers in West Africa for a good long while.

2. The US does not want Saudi Arabia anywhere near West Africa - it's a corporate thing, having to do with the fact that West Africa has huge resource deposits, especially oil.

3. The 'developed' Western nations divvied up West Africa for Ebola support - the US got Liberia, the UK got Sierra Leone and France got Guinea.

4. Liberia's epidemic was slowing dramatically by the time US aid ramped up, but the epidemic in Sierra Leone was surging.

5. MSF wanted the US to redirect aid committed to Liberia over to Sierra Leone where it was urgently needed.

6. The international community is most critical of the UK (not the US), and blames Britain for the epidemic's surge in Sierra Leone.



Hope this helps provide a more accurate alternative perspective.