Top Health Official Defends Choice for Ebola Czar

iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, defended President Obama’s choice of Ron Klain to be the administration’s Ebola “czar” despite his lack of medical background, calling him an “excellent manager.”

“I think that’s a misplaced criticism,” Fauci told ABC’s This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. “What we’re talking about now is an Ebola response coordinator, somebody who has extraordinary, as he does, managerial experience…leadership experience, which he has plenty of.”

“He’s going to rely on medical experts, like myself and Dr. Frieden and others, to do the medical things,” Fauci said, referring to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Dr. Tom Frieden.

Meanwhile, Fauci also defended the administration’s decision to not ban travel from those countries in West Africa that have been hardest hit by Ebola.

“When people come in from a country it’s much easier to track them if you know where they’re coming from,” Fauci said. “But what you do if you then completely ban travel, there’s the feasibility of going to other countries where we don’t have a travel ban and have people come in.”

As for the situation at home, Fauci maintained that the new CDC protocols for the proper treatment of Ebola patients “will be finalized soon,” admitting that certain aspects of the current guidelines fell short in critical ways.

Fauci also gave an update on the condition of Nina Pham, one of the nurses who contracted Ebola after caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, saying her condition is “fair” and “stable,” and she is in “very good spirits.”

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