What Can Obama’s Ebola Czar Do?

What the Ebola czar does is unimportant; he is here to save Obama, the federal government, the Democrats and the worrying image they have prior to the midterm election.

On October 17, American President Obama announced the appointment of Ron Klain as the Ebola czar, but using a political candidate without any medical background or experience controlling infectious diseases was a decision some U.S. congressmen doubted.

On September 28, Thomas Duncan, a U.S. citizen who had just returned from Liberia, was confirmed to have contracted Ebola, and he died on October 4 after hospital treatment did not work. Duncan became the first Ebola death outside of Africa. The CDC also confirmed that two nurses who took care of Duncan also have Ebola, breaking the perfect record of no Ebola infections outside of Africa for the past 38 years, igniting an American and global panic.

During this time, the American government and the medical system, who have repeatedly vowed that “we are prepared,” keep showing flaws. When Duncan first visited the hospital, the hospital let him leave despite knowing that he had been to infected areas and was showing symptoms, because he had no insurance and there were worries over cost. When the two nurses first became infected, the CDC and the hospital insisted that there were no problems with the medical system and regulations. Then news of the hospital gloves not being sealed off (from an involved nurse), and how nurses showing symptoms were still asked to care for patients, etc., became public, furthering sparking discontent with the Obama administration.

A French TV station said that Americans have been told over the years by some agencies that America is very distant from the threat of Ebola, so when people learned that the virus is within reach, fear and anger is imaginable.

November is America’s prime time for midterm elections. The Republicans will not give up a chance to use this issue, while Obama, who always pays attention to public opinion, is trying to salvage the situation. On the evening of the 15th, he urged hospitals to amend protocols for infectious diseases. The next day, he authorized the Pentagon to send National Guard soldiers to West Africa to fight Ebola. He also said he would appoint someone to be in charge of Ebola management, an Ebola czar, a position which was created 12 hours later. The position is new and directly replaces the director of the CDC, Thomas Frieden, and is the exclusive spokesperson for the American government on Ebola.

Before the czar was revealed, Republicans attacked Obama for being irresponsible and delaying the appointment of someone new when the CDC was not up to the task. After the czar was appointed, they continued to criticize, aiming their attacks at Klain, claiming that he was chosen because of his connections and not his ability. If Republicans are anti-Obama everything, then their words could be ignored for now. Indeed, the rushed appointment of an outsider, a leader without following, to coordinate the complex Ebola fight, instead of improving on the established CDC system, has deep meaning.

For the beleaguered Obama and the Democrats, the crisis with domestic politics and voter confidence is a bigger epidemic than Ebola. Just like what a lot of the media has said, if the Obama administration is not going to use the CDC as a scapegoat, an agency called a failure by The Wall Street Journal, the epidemic was bound to affect even more people. Appointing a czar may be ridiculed as Obama saving himself and not others, but at least it showed the government doing something. This was an essential booster shot after the ineffective, low-brow, self-saving gestures of Obama hugging the nurses who cared for Duncan.

What the Ebola czar does is irrelevant; ultimately, his purpose is to save Obama, the federal government and the Democrats. The CDC would likely still have to do the dirty work of dealing with the Ebola epidemic and its victims.

Yao Duanfang is a scholar.