Obama praises health care workers, ‘American exceptionalism’ in Ebola fight

President Obama on Wednesday forcefully defended U.S. health care workers returning from the Ebola outbreak’s front lines in West Africa as “heroes” deserving respect, in a White House pep rally designed to lift up volunteers fighting the virus at its source while rebuking those who let “fear” and “hysteria” dictate the country’s response.

Mr. Obama did not call out any state leaders during his remarks, but his administration has criticized governors who established quarantine policies for people returning from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea as guided by public pressure instead of medical evidence. People who do not show symptoms of Ebola are not considered contagious.

“It’s critical we remain focused on the facts and on the science,” Mr. Obama said.

The president toggled between praise for health care workers, a few of which stood behind him, and the U.S. itself, declaring himself a “firm believer in American exceptionalism.”

“I’m confident we will contain, [and] ultimately snuff out, this outbreak of Ebola, because that’s what we do,” he said.

He said no other nation is doing as much as the U.S. to take on Ebola, and there is still a “long way to go” to eliminate the risk from abroad. He also acknowledged that many people are scared of the virus, which is marked by hemorrhagic fever and has killed nearly 5,000 abroad.

Republican lawmakers have battered Mr. Obama for failing to impose a travel ban on those electing to travel to the U.S. from West Africa. The administration had to play catch-up at times, as missteps in Dallas exposed cracks in U.S. preparedness and the administration appeared a step behind states itching to put tough rules in place to stem a potential outbreak within their borders.

The president has responded by shifting the focus to health care workers caught in the middle, as they shuttle between the African front and at home.

“We need to call them what they are, which is American heroes,” he said. “And they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,”