Obama Urges ‘Aggressive’ Monitoring of Ebola Threat in U.S.

NEW YORK TIMES                            OCT. 15, 2014
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR                              

President Obamaon Wednesday directed his aides to monitor the spread of Ebola in the United States “in a much more aggressive way,” but said the American people should remain confident in the government’s ability to prevent a widespread outbreak of the deadly disease.

After a two-hour meeting of cabinet-level officials who are in charge of the government’s response to the virus, Mr. Obama promised that a review of the recent Ebola cases in Dallas would determine what went wrong that allowed two nurses to be infected.

With a video link to Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the head of the Centers for Disease Control, the president said he had ordered health officials to determine, “How we are going to make sure that something like this isn’t repeated.”

But he did not criticize Dr. Frieden for what officials have called “shortcomings” in the response to the Ebola case in Dallas. And Mr. Obama went out of his way to reassure those listening that the virus does not pose a significant threat to the vast majority of people in the country.

President Obama met with Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, on Monday to discuss the Ebola situation. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

Even as Mr. Obama urged calm in the United States, he also sought to increase the pressure on other nations to respond more aggressively to the Ebola outbreak raging in West Africa.

If the world lets the disease rage out of control on that continent, Mr. Obama warned, “then it will spread globally.”

Mr. Obama canceled his travel to a fund-raiser and a campaign rally so he could hold today's meeting.

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