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Medicine for Fear: Transatlantic Leadership in Emergency Funding for Epidemics of Communicable Diseases

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by George Bogden and Max Smeets

Summary:

The Ebola crisis has shown that emerging communicable diseases cannot be managed effectively through delayed and disaggregated measures. While much of the discussion surrounding the 2014 Ebola outbreak has centered on the mechanics, utility, and priority of immediate steps to confront this particular crisis, the authors argue that now is an equally important moment for strategic, long-term thinking about combatting future outbreaks of communicable diseases. The transatlantic community is particularly wellsuited to take a leadership role in creating an emergency financing mechanism — the Transatlantic Emergency Epidemic Fund — to combat the spread of communicable diseases with high mortality rates during the crucial period following detection.