Kofi Annan: Ebola neglected because it started in Africa

Wealthy countries were slow to tackle the Ebola epidemic as it began in Africa, former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said in tough criticism of the response to the crisis on Thursday.

"I am bitterly disappointed by the response... I am disappointed in the international community for not moving faster," Annan told the flagship BBC programme Newsnight.

"If the crisis had hit some other region it probably would have been handled very differently. In fact when you look at the evolution of the crisis, the international community really woke up when the disease got to America and Europe."

Read more: Kofi Annan: Ebola neglected because it started in Africa

Pres. Obama: Democratic Voters ‘Aren’t Even Thinking’ About Midterms

[ SOURCE: THE HILL] A “whole bunch” of Democratic voters “aren’t even thinking about these elections coming up,” President Obama fretted during an interview with radio host Steve Harvey on Wednesday.

“We really need to have the kind of Congress that is serious about the issues that matter to folks and the responsibility is ultimately on everybody who’s listening,” Obama said. “Folks like to complain, talk about Washington — if only 45, 40 percent of the people are voting, it’s not surprising Congress isn’t responsive.”

Obama’s appearance on the show, which has a heavily black audience, came as the White House began accelerating its campaign efforts ahead of the midterm elections.

Obama repeatedly implored the radio audience “to really pay attention to this thing.”

“I need everybody listening to understand this is really, really important,” Obama said. “I need everybody’s help. This is the last election I’m involved in that really makes a difference.”

He added, “African-American voters, young voters, progressive voters, Latino voters — they now vote at relatively high rates during presidential elections,” but as a result of their failure to show up in 2010, “the Tea Party took over the Republican Party.”

“This election coming up gives everybody out there the ability to change Congress. … I’ve got to have a Congress that can work with me,” Obama added. “That is why this midterm is so important.”

Second Texas nurse has Ebola

A second Texas nurse who had contracted Ebola flew on a commercial flight from Ohio to Texas with a slight temperature the day before she was diagnosed, health officials said on Wednesday, raising new concerns about U.S. efforts to control the disease.

Chances that other passengers on the plane were infected were very low, but the nurse should not have been traveling on the flight, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Thomas Frieden told reporters.

The woman, Amber Vinson, 29, was isolated immediately after reporting a fever on Tuesday, Texas Department of State Health Services officials said. She had treated Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of Ebola and was the first patient diagnosed with the virus in the United States.

Read more: New Texas nurse with Ebola had slight fever on airliner

Some blame racism, but could anger be the cause of Eric Duncan's death?

In the days following the death of Eric Duncan due to Ebola, many have questioned whether his race played a role in how he was treated while in the hospital. Many have pointed out how white patients were given experimental drugs or blood transfusions from recovered Ebola patients as evidence that racism may have played a part in Duncan's death.

My question is could it be something other than racism. Could it be that doctors and nurses were angry at Duncan for coming back into the United States knowing that he may be sick and thus endangering them all? Could they have reacted to that fact consciously or more likely subconsciously and not treated Duncan as well as they could have?

I know that those in the medical field are professionals and claim to adhere to high ethical standards but they are human. And like with have recently with police officers high standards doesn't stop them from doing wrong. So do you think that anger may have played more a role than racism in Eric Duncan's death, or that he was just treated too late?

Sen. Rand Paul talks to black leaders in Ferguson.

After meeting with NAACP leaders in Ferguson, Missouri, Sen. Rand Paul told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that the Republicans Party's biggest mistake in recent decades has been not reaching out to African-American voters. Watch that segment of the interview below: