In The News

Should We Ban Flights From Countries With Ebola Outbreaks?

Vauhini Vara October 9, 2014
Diagnosis of the first US Ebola case was followed by petitions demanding travel bans from West Africa. But modern airline travel entails multiple connections, and travel bans would not work, explains Vauhini Vara for the New Yorker. Bans would disrupt economies and slow transfer of essential supplies and personnel required to stem the infectious disease. Determined individuals could circumvent...

Muslim Pilgrims Begin Hajj Pilgrimage

October 8, 2014
Saudi Arabia has dispatched more security personnel and health workers for this year’s annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca – 85,000 security and civil defense officers and 18 aircraft and Black Hawk helicopters have been deployed, reports Agence France Presse. This security expansion is largely in response to the alarming spread of the Islamic State on the attack in Iraq and Syria and threatening...

Health Care Gaps Increase Vulnerability to Ebola

Laurie Garrett October 6, 2014
Ebola will test the world’s diverse systems of health care. The United States is alone among advanced economies in lacking a universal health care system, and its health care costs more per capita than that of any other country. A system with unequal benefits makes the country vulnerable on two fronts: US hospitals offer state-of-the art treatment, a plane ride away, for the insured or those with...

Gloomy Outlook for Ghana Where Gold Does Not Shine Anymore

Vikram Mansharamani October 2, 2014
A country’s fortunes can rise and fall quickly. Ghana was hailed just two years ago as the world’s fastest growing economy, but now struggles with currency devaluation, poor infrastructure and an entrenched bureaucracy, explains Vikram Mansharamani, author, global equity investor and Yale lecturer. Confidence is falling – on stark display after the Ghana World Cup team refused to play without an...

How to Fund the Ebola Fight

Paula Kavathas September 18, 2014
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency session on Ebola today, at the request of the United States. The disease is spreading quickly in West Africa and, with global air travel, could quickly hop new borders. The health infrastructure of West Africa is weak, with limited resources and trained personnel. Prevention is the goal for a virus with no approved vaccine or therapeutic. Funding is...

Europe's Deadly Borders: An Inside Look at EU's Shameful Immigration Policy

Maximilian Popp September 16, 2014
European nations fiercely protect their borders, and Frontex is the continent’s border agency. “But now the civil war in Syria is creating millions of new refugees, and the next exodus is beginning in Iraq, as the terrorist group Islamic State continues to make inroads into the country,” writes Maximilian Popp for Spiegel Online. Popp notes that EU policies have not changed since the tragic 2013...

Heading Off a Bigger Ebola Catastrophe

Scott Gottlieb and Tevi Troy September 15, 2014
Ebola is spreading rapidly through African communities and devastating economies. Advanced nations can prevent the spread beyond West Africa by organizing intense research efforts and development of vaccines, encouraging donations for the prevention effort, and mandating screening efforts while maintaining open borders. Paradoxically, allowing open borders reduces fear. Otherwise, the infected...