he began working in the ebola wards at kenema. the wards became distressing and horrible to work in. as they filled up with people. some of the staff understandably got too frightened to come to work until finally dr. khan was working alone and wearing protective garb called ppe which is kind of a portable space suit along with nurse fonnie and a few other people. and joseph fare went to kenema to see how dr. khan was doing, and he was shocked and dismayed to see what was happening. there was one ebola -- there were three wards at kenema that were completely stuffed with ebola patients, and the largest was a big plastic tent that had been erected by a relief agency. and inside the tent there were about 30 beds of a certain type month in africa known as a cholera bed. a cholera bed has a plastic mattress and a hole in the center of the mattress, and the patient lies on the hole and defecates into a bucket because people who have kohl la have uncontrol, watery diarrhea. we ebola, they can also have uncontrollable diarrhea which often

when the said betty geyer off -- article was published favored people who died in kenema and one of the authors was dr. kahn and another was the nurse. i'm going to leave it there. i have more but i see we are running a little short on time. i thought it would be wonderful to just open up the room to questions and during the course of that i might be able to tell you a little bit more about the results as we now see them in terms of the mutation rate of ebola in what ebola is doing right now in west africa. thank you very much. [applause] [applause] >> questions, please. please see them -- use the microphone for your questions. any thoughts? any questions? yes. >> there was an interesting spread in the sunday "new york times" about photographs of workers in africa including an american steven hatch from massachusetts. my question is, i gather one or two people have survived in america and telling american medicine and they have all the bells and whistles and they have a lot of transfusions, however one of the people in the photographs in "the new york times" a young african man, a survi

i never met humarr khan and i never saw the kenema hospital. but what i did do was i got to know members of his family. he had brothers and sisters who lived in the united states ended it with an extraordinary family. i got a real feel for this guy just by talking to the people who love him. so that's how i did this particular piece of research. i don't know bustamante or not. i love to talk about writing it. >> thank you. >> i was wondering if you could comment on the affinity of the wealth we have had this outbreak and whether you think it's failure was primarily a scientific one in underestimating the virus or maybe an anthropological one underestimating the conditions in which it was spread? >> well there has been a lot of finger-pointing over this outbreak and a lot of discussion of the failure of the world health organization. the failure of all kinds of medical organizations and governments to really understand what was happening here. i see it a little bit differently. i would like to be able to get smug with you and say oh well i wrote

in sierra leone, striking burial workers in the eastern town of kenema have dumped the bodies of ebola victims at the entrance to a hospital in an act of protest over pay. the workers say they have not received their weekly hazard payments in nearly two months despite the dangers of their work. officials said the workers would be fired for mistreating the bodies. the protest comes as dr. aiah solomon konoyeima has become the eighth sierra leonean doctor to contracted ebola. all seven others have died. in the united states, michelle flournoy, who was considered the top contender to replace outgoing defense secretary chuck hagel, has taken herself out of the running for the post. citing family concerns, flournoy said she would keep her position as head of the center for a new american security, a think tank with close pentagon ties which receives key financial backing from military contractors. the move comes after another possible contender, rhode island democratic senator jack reed, also removed his name from consideration. obama announced hagel's departure monday after pressuring him

saved by the zmapp drug was the moment that the burial detail finished digging the grave and burying dr. humarr khan in kenema sierra leone. >> next aaron david miller argues our preoccupation with presidential greatness over the dash over and waits judgments. he says we would be better off if we never had another great president. this is about an hour and a half. >> welcome back to the miller center. and doug blackman. 25 years ago when united states cold war with the soviet union came to an abrupt hault there was wide hope among americans that our country would soon enter a kind of golden era.