“Obama said it was premature for him to say whether the U.S. would send an unapproved, experimental drug to Africa ....”
The instant that this drug is sent to Africa, the U.S.A. will own every Ebola death. If the drug actually works (by no means a certainty), the U.S.A. will receive little or no credit for it. If the drug doesn’t work, and the crisis gets worse — the U.S.A. will be blamed for that. (Just as, for instance, millions continue to believe that the U.S. government created HIV/AIDS.)
Yup.
The magical ‘serum’ is by no means the only treatment available for ebola that’s experimental.
There’s another drug, already approved for use in humans, in Japan that’s been shown to be effective in a laboratory study. Having been approved for use in humans already, the worst that could happen is that it simply doesn’t work in Ebola. This particular drug is in phase III clinical trials here for use as an anti-flu drug.