Im getting a lot of Ebola flashbacks with #COVID19.

As many of you know, I worked as a doctor in West Africa during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak. I was infected but lucky to have survived the disease myself.

So much of what I’m seeing now has parallels to what we saw then.

With Ebola, one of the earliest challenges was testing. There just wasn’t enough.

People would get tested and it could be days before we got a result back.

The whole time people were quarantined, sometimes with people who ultimately tested positive.

We needed faster testing.

Now we are seeing similar delays for #COVID19 testing all across the US.

Lots of people are reporting getting tested over a week ago and still not having results.

To be helpful in ending this outbreak, testing results must come back quicker. We absolutely need to do better.

The other big thing I’ve noticed is the similar challenge in public health communication and outreach.

In West Africa, there were so many rumors that Ebola wasn’t real or that it was a disease brought in by outsiders like myself.

In the West, we mocked & maligned West Africans for clinging to traditional practices like burials that were known to spread the virus.

We wondered why Liberians couldn’t just quarantine to get the outbreak under control!?

But have we’ve cast such a critical eye on ourselves?

Months into our raging pandemic, many Americans refuse to wear a mask despite clear evidence that it prevents transmission and saves lives.

So many of us are unwilling to give up the most meaningful things in our culture - going to church or family gatherings - despite the risk.

We should honestly ask ourselves, are we all that different?

Sure, Ebola and COVID19 aren’t the same, but don’t we all respond to unknown and scary threats in similar ways?

If #COVID19 has shown us anything, it’s that we’re not more prepared or much different than anyone else.

It’s not ‘greatness’ that tackles outbreaks. It’s ingenuity.

This @NPR story outlines how Rwanda - a middle income country in East Africa - has crushed the coronavirus with only a tiny fraction of the means and resources available in places like the US. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/07/15/889802561/a-covid-19-success-story-in-rwanda-free-testing-robot-caregivers

Both Ebola and #COVID19 have impacted my life in so many ways.

I’ve seen the destruction each can have on patients, on families, and in communities.

If we want to do better in this pandemic and the next one, we need to understand we’re all in this together.

At a time of global crisis, we need global solidarity.

Because in the end and regardless of the virus, we’re all really the same.

And we all deserve better than this.