Sen. Menendez criticizes Trump Administration’s failure to sufficiently respond to DRC Ebola outbreak

As he called for immediate action to eradicate a major outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) last week, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) also denounced the Trump Administration for its failures to combat the growing crisis adequately.

The outbreak is now recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a global threat and efforts to contain it have thus far proven inadequate. It is currently the second-largest outbreak of Ebola ever recorded. Under the Ebola Eradication Act of 2019, introduced by Menendez, the United States would be required to provide all available tools and resources to the containment effort and bolster efforts to confront the outbreak.

“We no longer have the luxury of half-hearted international engagement,” Menendez said. “We need a multifaceted, multi-sectoral, international response to get this under control. We know all too well that infectious diseases have no borders. It’s one airplane flight away from coming to our borders. And that has happened before. I urge my colleagues to work with me in passing S.1340, the Ebola Eradication Act of 2019, as it is currently drafted and as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed it in June. This is an opportunity to ultimately save lives. It’s an opportunity to stop an epidemic. It’s an opportunity to preserve our own interests by making sure Ebola doesn’t come to the shores of the United States. It should be a no-brainer.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assert that they have been assisting the WHO, as well as the DRC and Ugandan governments all along. This assistance has taken the form of coordination, as well as technical guidance related to surveillance, laboratory testing, contact tracing, infection control, border health screening, data management, risk communication and health education, vaccination and logistics.

However, Menendez says the lack of U.S. involvement is hinged on a separate issue. The State Department currently lists DRC as a Tier 3 country for human trafficking, meaning that it could be sanctioned. The Trump Administration has used that designation as reason to limit is assistance on the Ebola issue.

“Make no mistake, President Trump could have done this himself months ago,” Menendez said. “[The TVPA] was never intended to hurt the most vulnerable in society, or to be used as an excuse to ignore a deadly epidemic with international implications…we’re shooting ourselves in the foot with unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles that serve no purpose and slow down our response even as the disease continues to kill more and more people.”

As of July 17th, the WHO says the DRC outbreak has killed more than 1,800 people.