Ebola czar: Critics had ‘misperception of what was needed’

The Obama administration’s “Ebola czar” said in an interview published Monday that the criticism of his lack of a healthcare background might have been rooted in a “misperception of what was needed.”

“I’ve been around public life long enough to know that you’re going to take some licks if you’re in the public spotlight,” Ron Klain, the White House’s Ebola response coordinator, said about the criticism in an interview with Politico Magazine. “I think people maybe had a misperception of what was needed.”

{mosads}The Ebola virus, which continues to be a problem in West Africa, became a political flashpoint in the month before the midterm elections. Klain was appointed to lead the administration’s response but was criticized by some because his background is as a Democratic operative.

Klain is a former chief of staff to Vice Presidents Biden and Gore, and helped coordinate the administration’s 2009 stimulus law. Klain compared the Recovery Act project to planning the United States’ response to Ebola.

“It was taking a 14-or-15-agency response, a lot of great people, and making it all work together, figuring out where the seams were, figuring out what policy decisions needed to get made,” he said. “But I understand the public perception was a little different, and, you know, that just is what it is.”

As a few cases of Ebola emerged in the U.S., many called for a ban on travel from West Africa. Public health experts said such a ban would do little to stop the disease from spreading — but Klain said the option wasn’t ruled out by the White House.

“The president’s perspective on this was that no options were off the table,” Klain said, adding that they ultimately followed the advice of homeland security and medical experts.

He also praised Congress for authorizing most of the president’s request for additional funding to deal with the virus.

Klain is scheduled to leave the White House by March 1.