Miatta Kargbo
The then-Minister of Health was Miatta Kargbo, a trailblazer for women in high politics in Sierra Leone.
A month after the 404'd FB post, this happened:
By the power vested in President Ernest Bai Koroma, he on Friday, 29th August 2014, effected changes in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, a press release from State House states.
"His Excellency is pleased to make certain changes at the Ministry of Health as implementation of the National Ebola Response Plan gathers momentum."
The release adds that the newly-appointed Minister of Health and Sanitation is now Dr. Abu-Bakarr Fofanah while the former Minister, Miatta Kargbo has been recalled to State House in the Strategic Policy Unit until further notice.
"(I)n order to create a conducive environment for the efficient handling of the Ebola outbreak in the country, it has become necessary for changes to be made in the political leadership of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation."
Oh, so it was political.
The release further informs that in the case of the international committee, in addition to the relevant Ministries, its membership will include the United Nations Resident Coordinator, the Chief Medical Officer and the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative. The reconstituted Emergency Operations Center (EOC) will be co-chaired by the WHO Representative and the Chief Medical Officer.
Yeah, very political - eerily like the power structure we have now - but globally.
Sierra Leone's new Minister of Health is a well-grounded, brilliant and impressive young man who also holds an Advanced Diploma in tropical medicine from the London School of Hygiene and also from the Institute of Tropical Medical in Berlin, Germany from where he further graduated with an Advanced Certificate in Vaccinology.
(Rabbit-hole-within-a-rabbit-hole alert: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine: Wind back a few months to June 29 there's this:
A major new report by researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine for the UK's influential All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health, outlines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges for the UK as a leader in global health.
The report was launched .. at Portcullis House on Monday 29 June with senior health policy makers. Speakers included George Freeman MP, Life Sciences Minister; Lord Howell, Chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society: Peter Piot, Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust; and Lord Kakkar, UK Business Ambassador for Healthcare and Life Sciences.
Farrar: This (2014) report is superb in showing how far we have come, but we cannot be complacent. The world is facing enormous challenges, and we need strong global organisations with authority and leadership.
By 2016 Wellcome had it's own lab in Sierra Leone with authority and leadership:
The lab at the University of Makeni (UNIMAK) – a collaboration with the University of Cambridge supported by funding from the Wellcome Trust – will be officially opened today (Friday 22 January, 2016) by Sierra Leonean Health Minister Dr Abu Bakarr Fofanah.)
Note: To further confuse matters, the ex-Minister was accused of corruption by the Commission of Inquiry report which had found Miatta Kargbo wanting for non-supply of 20 ambulances amounting to US$1.05 mil.
Kargbo denied the allegation - said it was political. Could well be.
Don't look at me, i don't know.
What we do know for sure:
- There was strong, organized people-power resistance against US military bio-weapon/defense labs - within a wider protest against endemic corruption.
- The only reason Andersen and Garry had funding was to study hemorrhagic fevers as potential bio-weapons.
As Fauchi once said when pleading for Cheney's bio-terror Bioshield before congress after Anthrax:
Biotech firms are our industrial partners - they are essential to countermeasure development.
But they want some assurances if they are successful that there'll be a market for their product.