Dr. Mike Ryan WHO, a poem by Attracta Fahy

You need to react quickly; you need to go after
the virus– stop the chains of transmission.
You need to engage with communities very deeply,
community acceptance is hugely important.

You need to be coordinated, coherent.
You need to look at other sectorial impacts,
schools, security, and economics.

So it is essentially many of those same lessons
I’ve learned after so many Ebola outbreaks
in my career; Be fast, have no regrets,
you must be the first mover,

The virus will always get you, if you don’t move
quickly,
you need to be prepared, and I say this;
one of the great things in emergency response,
and anyone who is involved
will know this–

If you need to be right before you move, you will
never win.
Perfection is the enemy of the good.
When it comes to emergency management,

speed trumps perfection.
The problem in society we have at the moment is;

Everyone is afraid of making a mistake, everyone
is afraid
of the consequence of error.

The greatest error is not to move,
the greatest error is to be paralysed
by the fear of failure.

And I think that’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned
in the Ebola responses in the past.