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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't get the trashing of Obama over this, including by Dems.  I didn't vote for him either time.  [b]I cheered his decision to send the military to Liberia (why aren't we hearing more about this?).  [/b][b]The CDC has made missteps; it is a bureaucracy and anyone who thinks a president has much power over entrenched government bureaucracies is seriously [/b]misguided.  One might hope Obama had come up with the perfect formula for making everyone believe everything will be okay; he hasn't, but what president could?.

It is also unrealistic to think a president should be an expert in public health who could have the confidence to overrule experts from the CDC, particularly at the outset of all this.  (I wouldn't be surprised, however, to see the head of the CDC resign over the second nurse debacle.)

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I did vote for Obama both times and continue to consider myself a supporter.  I cheered his decision to send aid and military support to Liberia and think it was absolutely the right decsion.  But fighting the disease in West Africa doesn't preclude taking additional measures here in the US.  These [u]are not mutually exclusive and it's frustrating that the President and others in the administration present it as an either / or - it's not.[/u]

At a minimum, people coming to the US from affected areas in West Africa where infection rates are high, should be kept in quarantine and not permitted into the general population until they are shown to be disease free.  Or, if the quarantine is too logistically complex, then ban travellers who have visited affected areas in West Africa within the last 21 days.  After 21 days since their travel, they are welcome in.

I don't expect that the President has to be a public health expert.  But the officials at HHS, including Dr. Frieden, serve at the President's pleasure and it is now abundantly clear that Frieden and his team are insufficiently prepared to address Ebola.  Even other public health officials are publically stating their concerns about the CDC's handling of this issue.  From misinformation to the insistence that Ebola would never come to the US to the poor monitoring of the second nurse infected (why was she not being monitored by the CDC team in Dallas as the public was repeatedly assured anyone who had contact with Mr. Duncan would be????).   Obama needs a different team in place.  NOW.

Moreover, [b]Obama seems t be completely tone deaf to the concerns of the public.  People are afraid for their lives and the lives of their children and are responding to the absurdly poor response from the CDC and other officials.  Obama is conducting fundraisers and photo ops.  Where is his leadership?  Where is his command?[/b]

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Exactly.  [/quote]

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