Obama Administration's response to Ebola outbreak is late and inadequate.

• Position: Your Life

"Pres. Barack Obama and his Administration simultaneously have endeavored to minimize the significance of the threat posed by the Ebola virus and avoid taking responsible steps to reduce the spread of the deadly virus. That obfuscation and inaction has placed the American people at greater risk of the lethal contagion. His present failures mean that we are likely to see more cases of Ebola in the U.S. with the real potential that there may be regional outbreaks with consequences as dire as those currently plaguing Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone," charges attorney Jonathan W. Emord, principal of Emord and Associates, Clifton, Va., and author of several books, most recently, Restore the Republic--How the American People Can Once Again Be Free and Prosperous.

Scientists discovered the Ebola virus in 1976, although its origins are the subject of debate, points out Emord. Many think that it started in monkeys or bats and then entered the human species through contact with those animals' body fluids. Some 70% to 80% of those who contract the virus will die from it. The time interval between infection and the onset of symptoms is between a few and 20 or more days, with the average interval consisting of eight to 21 days. The symptoms are, in many respects, not unlike a bad case of the flu--that is until hemorrhagic fever becomes evident with bleeding from orifices. The symptoms include a fever greater than 101.5[degrees]F, severe headache, muscle pain, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and unexplained hemorrhage (bleeding and bruising).

"Dr. Charles B. Simone is one of the world's best oncologists and immunologists. He is a science advisor to my law firm," says Emord. "Dr. Simone has explained that the statements made by Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to the public have downplayed the risks associated with infected persons and communal forms of travel, like air travel. Dr. Frieden has said that There is zero risk of transmission of Ebola on air flight' and that the disease 'does not spread from someone who doesn't have fever or other symptoms.' That, Dr. Simone indicates, 'is not exactly true.'

"Dr. Simone cautions that Ebola is, in fact, spread by the means many public health people in the U.S. insist is not a means: 'aerosol transmission.' Dr. Simone reports that Ebola is spread by aerosol transmission as well as 'by direct contact with blood, mucus, or other body...