Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who has been pressing the Obama administration to take more active measures to contain the Ebola crisis, says the president’s appointment of longtime Democratic political operative Ron Klain as the nation’s Ebola czar is “incredibly disappointing.”
“It would disappoint me to think that this administration would appoint someone who is in the communications arena,” Blackburn said shortly after learning the news Friday morning, “and is not someone with experience in emergency response, with experience in public health, that has managed an outbreak or an epidemic or a pandemic or some such situation. That is what is needed right now.”
Blackburn said the “exponential growth” in the number of Americans affected by Ebola, from the two patients with the disease to the hundreds who are under some sort of watch, calls for a more vigorous response. The appointment of Klain, perhaps best known as Al Gore’s top staffer in the battle over the 2000 presidential election, is not the sort of vigorous response Blackburn and others had in mind. “The American people want the confidence that someone who understands infectious disease is in charge,” she said.
