I think Dr. Osterholm is absolutely correct that some type of incident command structure has to be put in place, and quickly.
Of course, the idea that the UN has some sort of capability along these lines is, well, a little off - but if I wanted to ring the alarm and I wanted to do it in the NYT, I might have said the same thing.
The airports and harbors in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia need to be closed, now, and only the Global Force for Good can do it. Closing Nigeria is several orders of magnitude more difficult, and the evidence in hand doesn’t show that it’s necessary (yet).
But allowing outbound flights from Monrovia, Freetown, Conakry (and probably Bamako) any more is just crazy. Within a month, you’re going to see plague ships trying to make the run to Brazil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordon_sanitaire
The CDC and the WHO for that matter are waling a fine line with a lot of very irresponsible politicians.
They under no circumstances can tell them an unpalatable truth that will get them cut off from access to power because of the stakes.
An inadequate half a loaf policy that saves a few now and might let reality teach the politicos is better than being cut off by telling a truth that will result in hard reality denial until well after it is too late, with a blame the messenger