The Economic Impact of the Ebola Outbreak

Part of the Global Forecast 2015

There is awareness of the acute need to accelerate the development of new technology tools—vaccines, therapies, rapid tests—and much action is under way in each area. Realistically, progress will be slow. There is reason to be hopeful, but new solutions are not expected to become widely available for some time, and are not expected to shape outcomes in this current urgent phase. Debate over post–Ebola reconstruction has not yet begun, but will become increasingly important. The same is true for what the international community should do to repair a broken WHO that failed at critical moments in 2014 to intervene and sound the alarm, despite prodding from Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the true heroes of this tragic saga, and other witnesses.

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Daniel F. Runde
Senior Vice President; William A. Schreyer Chair; Director, Project on Prosperity and Development
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Conor M. Savoy

Conor M. Savoy

Former Senior Fellow, Project on Prosperity and Development