Post by Vanessa Kerry, MD MSc

We don't often write together. But this felt like a moment that called for it — born of shared concerns over how the current outbreak is being managed, this was a chance to bring two vantage points to the same urgent argument. My father and I have seen Ebola outbreaks unfold from very different positions.    In 2014-15, he was Secretary of State coordinating the international response to the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.   As a physician, I’ve spent my career working in hospitals, and alongside governments, health workers and communities, to strengthen the systems that stop outbreaks at their source.   We’ve both learned the same. The key to overcoming an outbreak is preparedness, rapid mobilization and stopping it where it’s unfolding.    The 2014-15 outbreak showed what’s possible when America leads. More than 3,500 U.S. personnel deployed. Treatment centers and laboratories built. Thousands of health workers trained. International partners mobilized.   The result: hundreds of thousands of lives were saved.   Today, another Ebola outbreak is spreading, this time across Central Africa.   The dismantling of USAID, cuts to global health programs and the withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization means our ability to fight this outbreak is diminished.   The biggest lesson from 2014-15 is that outbreaks are not stopped at airports or borders. They are stopped at the source.   That means mobilizing emergency funding for laboratories and surveillance systems. Strengthening contact tracing. Expanding treatment capacity. Ensuring medical supply chains. Training and protecting health workers. Building community trust.   In fact, the most effective way to keep Americans safe is to help the DRC, its neighbors, WHO, Africa CDC, and frontline responders stop the transmission before it spreads further.   The costs of waiting, in dollars and lives, will be vastly greater than the costs of acting now.   Dad and I wrote about why in The Wall Street Journal today. You can read it here: https://lnkd.in/eaiuNmFS John Kerry