Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said Saturday that while he “hate[s] to invoke the term ‘czar,'” President Obama needs one to combat the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
“One of the big backdrops of this is a national defense issue of germ pandemic and drone warfare,” Kingston told the Washington Examiner.
The congressman said the United States needs a “George Mitchell type character” to lead “one central office that’s a clearinghouse” to unify the efforts of government entities like the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Individually they’re doing a good job, but they’re in their own silo,” Kingston said.
The congressman said he thought the scientists involved were doing well, but “you need a command and control general, a strategic guy.”
Ebola has killed over 3,400 people in the west Africa countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, according to the CDC.
Kingston was defeated by David Perdue, a businessman, in the Republican primary for Georgia’s open Senate seat earlier this year.
Kingston represents Georgia’s first congressional district.
