New York Times: Yes, We Were Warned About Ebola
Bernice Dahn, chief medical officer of Liberia’s Ministry of Health; Vera Mussah, director of county health services in Liberia’s Ministry of Health; and Cameron Nutt, Ebola response adviser to Paul Farmer at Partners in Health

“The conventional wisdom among public health authorities is that the Ebola virus, which killed at least 10,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, was a new phenomenon, not seen in West Africa before 2013. … The conventional wisdom is wrong. … When the history of this epidemic is written, it will chronicle the myriad ways that … we were not prepared. But none of us can in good conscience say there was no warning. Ebola was here already. … A lasting legacy of this terrifying health crisis must be a new architecture for global health delivery, with a strong focus on building local capacity to respond effectively to such crises. Equity must be an indispensable goal in protecting from threats like Ebola, and in the quality of care delivered when prevention fails. Only then can we leave behind the rubber plantation model of international health and draw on the science that must inform these endeavors” (4/7).