CEPI, an organization that played a major role in funding COVID-era vaccine development and which sports the slogan “Preparing for Future Pandemics,” has announced roughly $60 million in funding for Moderna and other groups to accelerate work on Ebola Bundibugyo vaccines.
There are a few concerns here…
As of May 16, the WHO was only able to report eight laboratory-confirmed cases, 246 suspected cases, and 80 suspected deaths. The repeated use of the word “suspected” really stands out here.
It’s also worth noting that an Ebola vaccine already exists, but authorities stated that it won’t target the new strain. How could they make that determination from only eight confirmed cases?
Officials are also saying they suspect it’s an outbreak. This is odd, given the limited number of confirmed cases. On top of this, we don’t know how reliable the PCR tests are for Ebola, so the numbers could be much lower.
Even so, the public is being shown fear-inducing images of workers in hazmat suits standing over coffins of Ebola victims, while the WHO proclaims emergency declarations that are an obvious play on words to look more alarming.
This raises another question: why is so much attention on Ebola while other diseases that are killing far more people in the same region, at the same time, are not receiving attention?
In 2024, there were 265 million cases of malaria and 579,000 deaths in the African Region alone, while children under 5 accounted for about 75% of these deaths.
The highest number of Ebola deaths during an outbreak came to about 11,300 from 2014 to 2016. Even so, the U.S., along with the American taxpayers, have become the world’s largest donors, committing over $500 million to fight Ebola.
When you compare the relatively small number of confirmed cases to the massive amount of funding and media attention, something just isn’t adding up.
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