BETHESDA, Maryland (AP) – President Barack Obama says the fight against Ebola remains an urgent priority, even if the American public’s attention has shifted elsewhere.
Obama is speaking at the National Institutes of Health in Washington’s Maryland suburbs. He is highlighting the NIH’s advances in researching an Ebola vaccine, calling the initial results “exciting” while cautioning that there are “no guarantees” about the vaccine’s ultimate success.
NIH researchers last week reported that the first safety study of a vaccine candidate found no serious side effects, and that it triggered signs of immune protection in 20 volunteers. U.S. health officials are planning much larger studies in West Africa to try to determine whether the shots really work.
Obama says that in order to fully tackle Ebola, we have to solve it in hard-hit West Africa.