“We seem to have been dealing with infecting monkeys with the Ebola virus, for years.”
Are you thinking of the Reston ebolavirus that was featured in ‘The Hot Zone’?
If so, that virus is closely related to the Ebola that infects humans but is itself not pathogenic to humans.
No, the Ebola research that is taking place in the U.S. and Canada.
I don’t know what all the labs are doing, but at least the one in San Diego was/is infecting monkeys with it and then trying to cure them.