President Obama renewed his call Tuesday for Congress to approve $5.6 billion in emergency funding to fight Ebola, saying “we are nowhere near out of the woods yet in West Africa.”
During an Oval Office meeting with advisers, Mr. Obama said it’s important to “stamp out this disease entirely in that region.”
“Until we do, there are threats if additional outbreaks, and given the nature of international travel, it means that everybody has some measure of risk,” the president said.
The worst of the epidemic has hit in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Despite the death of a doctor in Nebraska who contracted the disease in Sierra Leone, Mr. Obama said the U.S. has established “that when Ebola is properly diagnosed and treated we have a great chance of curing it.”
“Some of the attention on the crisis has ebbed over the last several weeks, but the challenge remains,” he said.
Among those attending the meeting were Homeland Security Sec. Jeh Johnson, presidential advisers Valerie Jarrett, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and Ebola czar Ron Klain.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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