President Obama is more confident in his administration’s ability to contain the Ebola virus, as U.S. health officials have seen no new cases of the disease since two nurses contracted the virus in Dallas.
Obama told reporters Wednesday he was “cautiously more optimistic” that health officials had limited the Ebola threat domestically, saying that the bigger problem was halting the epidemic in West Africa.
As part of that effort, the administration announced Wednesday morning that the U.S. would monitor everyone traveling from the Ebola-stricken West African nations for 21 days.
Obama’s remarks came after a meeting with newly appointed Ebola czar Ron Klain, who officially reported for his first day of work on Wednesday. Obama also met with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and Ambassador Nancy Powell, special coordinator for the State Department’s Ebola Response Unit.
The president said he spoke to coworkers of the two Dallas nurses who were infected with Ebola at Texas Presbyterian Hospital, reporting that their “spirits were good.” Nurse Nina Pham, who was flown to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., for treatment, had her condition upgraded from fair to good this week.
The joint appearance with Klain was the first public showing for the former chief of staff to Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore. Republicans have widely mocked the Klain appointment, saying the job should have gone to a leader with extensive medical experience.
The White House has countered that the Ebola czar will focus mostly on coordinating the response from numerous federal agencies, leaving the medical efforts to the healthcare professionals.
