The CDC Is Like Any Other Bureaucracy

The CDC Is Like Any Other Bureaucracy

Why you cannot depend upon Government

The House hearing on the response to Ebola pulled the curtain away to show a crumbling administrative state that can't handle a health threat. 

Centers for Disease Control Director Tom Frieden said, "We know how to control Ebola. ... But there are no shortcuts in the control of Ebola. And it is not easy to control it. To protect the United States, we have to stop it at the source." But can the CDC control the disease as well as it would like? 

Frieden told the House that about 150 people enter the United States from Ebola-infected countries per day and the CDC screens 94% of them. And when it comes to treating the disease, a nurse at the Texas hospital that treated the first Ebola patient in the U.S. alleges the hospital did not take adequate safety measures. 

While nurses wore two layers of gloves, their jury-rigged safety equipment left their chins and necks bare. For most of the American population, Ebola has been hyped up and sensationalized, but it has highlighted the limitations of a bloated, ineffectual government.