Mr. Secretary-General, thank you for bringing us together today to address an urgent threatto the people of West Africa, but also a potential threat to the world. Dr. Chan, heads of stateand government, especially our African partners, ladies and gentlemen: As we gather heretoday, the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone and Guinea are in crisis. As Secretary-General Banand Dr. Chan have already indicated, the Ebola virus is spreading at alarming speed.Thousands of men, women and children have died. Thousands more are infected. Ifunchecked, this epidemic could kill hundreds of thousands of people in the coming months.Hundreds of thousands.
Ebola is a horrific disease. It’s wiping out entire families. It has turned simple acts of love andcomfort and kindness -- like holding a sick friend’s hand, or embracing a dying child -- intopotentially fatal acts. If ever there were a public health emergency deserving an urgent,strong and coordinated international response, this is it.
But this is also more than a health crisis. This is a growing threat to regional and globalsecurity. In Liberia, in Guinea, in Sierra Leone, public health systems have collapsed. Economicgrowth is slowing dramatically. If this epidemic is not stopped, this disease could cause ahumanitarian catastrophe across the region. And in an era where regional crises can quicklybecome global threats, stopping Ebola is in the interest of all of us.
The courageous men and women fighting on the front lines of this disease have told us whatthey need. They need more beds, they need more supplies, they need more health workers, andthey need all of this as fast as possible. Right now, patients are being left to die in the streetsbecause there’s nowhere to put them and there’s nobody to help them. One health worker inSierra Leone compared fighting this outbreak to “fighting a forest fire with spray bottles.” Butwith our help, they can put out the blaze.
Last week, I visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is mounting thelargest international response in its history. I said that the world could count on America tolead, and that we will provide the capabilities that only we have, and mobilize the world the waywe have done in the past in crises of similar magnitude. And I announced that, in additionto the civilian response, the United States would establish a military command in Liberia tosupport civilian efforts across the region.
Today, that command is up and it is running. Our commander is on the ground in Monrovia,and our teams are working as fast as they can to move in personnel, equipment and supplies.We’re working with Senegal to stand up an air bridge to get health workers and medicalsupplies into West Africa faster. We’re setting up a field hospital, which will be staffed bypersonnel from the U.S. Public Health Service, and a training facility, where we’re gettingready to train thousands of health workers from around the world. We’re distributing suppliesand information kits to hundreds of thousands of families so they can better protectthemselves. And together with our partners, we’ll quickly build new treatment units acrossLiberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, where thousands will be able to receive care.
Meanwhile, in just the past week, more countries and organizations have stepped up theirefforts -- and so has the United Nations. Mr. Secretary-General, the new UN Mission for EbolaEmergency Response that you announced last week will bring all of the U.N.’s resources tobear in fighting the epidemic. We thank you for your leadership.
So this is all progress, and it is encouraging. But I want us to be clear: We are not moving fastenough. We are not doing enough. Right now, everybody has the best of intentions, but peopleare not putting in the kinds of resources that are necessary to put a stop to this epidemic.There is still a significant gap between where we are and where we need to be. We know fromexperience that the response to an outbreak of this magnitude has to be fast and it has to besustained. It’s a marathon, but you have to run it like a sprint. And that’s only possible ifeverybody chips in, if every nation and every organization takes this seriously. Everybody herehas to do more.
International organizations have to move faster, and cut through red tape and mobilize partnerson the ground as only they can. More nations need to contribute critical assets andcapabilities -- whether it is air transport, or medical evacuation, or health care workers, orequipment, or treatment. More foundations can tap into the networks of support that theyhave, to raise funds and awareness. More businesses, especially those who already have apresence in the region, can quickly provide their own expertise and resources, from access tocritical supply chains to telecommunications. And more citizens -- of all nations -- can educatethemselves on this crisis, contribute to relief efforts, and call on their leaders to act. Soeverybody can do something. That’s why we’re here today.
And even as we meet the urgent threat of Ebola, it’s clear that our nations have to do more toprevent, detect and respond to future biological threats -- before they erupt into full-blowncrises. Tomorrow, in Washington, I’ll host 44 nations to advance our Global Health SecurityAgenda, and we are interested in working with any country that shares this commitment.
Just to emphasize this issue of speed again. When I was down at the CDC -- and perhaps thishas already been discussed, but I want to emphasize this -- the outbreak is such where at thispoint more people will die. But the slope of the curve, how fast we can arrest the spread ofthis disease, how quickly we can contain it is within our control. And if we move fast, even ifimperfectly, then that could mean the difference between 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 deathsversus hundreds of thousands or even a million deaths. So this is not one where there should bea lot of wrangling and people waiting to see who else is doing what. Everybody has got to movefast in order for us to make a difference. And if we do, we’ll save hundreds of thousands of lives.
Stopping Ebola is a priority for the United States. I’ve said that this is as important a nationalsecurity priority for my team as anything else that’s out there. We’ll do our part. We willcontinue to lead, but this has to be a priority for everybody else. We cannot do this alone. Wedon’t have the capacity to do all of this by ourselves. We don’t have enough health workers byourselves. We can build the infrastructure and the architecture to get help in, but we’re goingto need others to contribute.
To my fellow leaders from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, to the people of West Africa, to theheroic health workers who are on the ground as we speak, in some cases, putting themselvesat risk -- I want you to know that you are not alone. We’re working urgently to get you the helpyou need. And we will not stop, we will not relent until we halt this epidemic once and for all.
So I want to thank all of you for the efforts that are made. But I hope that I’m properlycommunicating a sense of urgency here. Do not stand by, thinking that somehow, because ofwhat we’ve done, that it’s taken care of. It’s not. And if we don’t take care of this now we aregoing to see fallout effects and secondary effects from this that will have ramifications for a longtime, above and beyond the lives that will have been lost.
I urge all of you, particularly those who have direct access to your heads of state, to make surethat they are making this a top priority in the next several weeks and months.
Thank you very much.
