The Associated Press reported on Feb 11, 2015 that the President will announcement today withdrawing our deployed forces to West Africa. About 1500 will remain.
Ten months ago, the historic deployment of U.S. military for a public health disaster sent Americans to help fight the world's largest outbreak of Ebola in history. The outbreak is estimated to cost Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone an estimated $1.6 billion in lost economic growth this year. All of this has taken from 10-20% of their GDP by previous estimates.
This is an historic deployment of American military for the purpose of containment of a public health threat, and by definition, a threat to national and global security.
Post-deployment procedures in a memo from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 7 November 2014 provide the process by which service members, civilians and contractors returning from the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Outbreak areas will be subject to 21-day controlled monitoring. Whether this is an anomaly in history or whether the military should prepare for deployments of this nature for the future is the question strategists should be addressing, now.
Ten months ago, the historic deployment of U.S. military for a public health disaster sent Americans to help fight the world's largest outbreak of Ebola in history. The outbreak is estimated to cost Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone an estimated $1.6 billion in lost economic growth this year. All of this has taken from 10-20% of their GDP by previous estimates.
This is an historic deployment of American military for the purpose of containment of a public health threat, and by definition, a threat to national and global security.
Post-deployment procedures in a memo from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 7 November 2014 provide the process by which service members, civilians and contractors returning from the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Outbreak areas will be subject to 21-day controlled monitoring. Whether this is an anomaly in history or whether the military should prepare for deployments of this nature for the future is the question strategists should be addressing, now.
Deploying troops for the sole purpose of helping to control a disease is a very interesting. Are soldiers told before they sign up for the military that this could be a potential deployment? It is not necessarily what I think of when I think about someone being a solider. Since the disease was a threat to national security, it makes sense to deploy soldiers to protect us from this threat. I think it is an important thing for future soldiers to think about when they sign up for the military.
ReplyDeleteMy first question was what role did the U.S. Military play in controlling the outbreak and I found that during this deployment, U.S. Military did not provide direct care to patients that were infected with Ebola. My question is how did the U.S. decide which military branches to send? About half of the U.S. Military sent were from the Army's 101st Airborne Division and the other half were combat engineers from the Army. Do these troops have any specialized training for dealing with an outbreak?
ReplyDeleteIt is great that our troops are withdrawing after completing a successful operation. It is important that the military come up with a plan to ensure that personnel are not infected with Ebola. Our military and other federal agencies need to prevent an outbreak of Ebola and to control against it in the future.
ReplyDeleteI think deploying the U.S. Military to contain deadly virus diseases is a logical step to lessen the fear of virus diseases in the U.S. When the Ebola outbreak was escalated throughout Africa regions, I saw a lot of health concerns raise by reading comments from Ebola related published articles. Some concerns were associated with the probability of Ebola spreading in the US soil. I think deploying the U.S. Military can reduce these concerns.
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ReplyDeleteInterestingly, the United States Military did not have an established play for troop reintegration after returning from Ebola. Astonishingly, military members were originally told to return to their duty station, and were permitted to interact with friends and family. Thankfully, after further investigation, top military advisors decided to institute a 21-day quarantine to protect the public from exposure to Ebola from the servicemen returning from West Africa. It will be interesting to see if the United States intervenes again in response to the Zika virus, and if so, what protections the will institute.
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