As the Ebola virus spreads through West Africa, some conservative Americans are making eyebrow-raising comments, while doctors question whether patients are getting inadequate care just because they happen to be black Africans. In her latest column, conservative author-pundit Ann Coulter called Africa a “disease-ridden cesspool.” On Twitter, builder, reality TV figure and sometime politician Donald Trump slammed the decision to bring two American missionaries infected with Ebola home for treatment (“KEEP THEM OUT OF HERE!” he railed.) Meanwhile, Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., a retired physician who says he’s “well aware of the dangers infectious diseases pose,” raised concerns last month that unaccompanied minor migrants from Central America -- where exactly zero cases have been reported -- may bring the Ebola virus to the United States.

The latest update from the World Health Organization on Wednesday reported 932 deaths and 1,711 cases in the Ebola crisis overwhelming Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria.  Between Saturday and Monday, 108 cases and 45 deaths were reported, according to the WHO.
Three doctors who wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday strongly hinted that the there’s no eagerness to treat West Africa’s Ebola patients with experimental vaccines because they happen to live in Africa. Jeremy Farrar, David Heymann and Peter Piot wrote about how such a vaccine was quickly used five years ago in Germany on a virologist who nicked her finger with a syringe containing the same strand of Ebola spreading now through West Africa.
“It is highly likely that if Ebola were now spreading in Western countries, public-health authorities would give at-risk patients access to experimental drugs or vaccines,” they wrote, adding that experimental treatments are being given to Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, the American doctor and nurse infected with Ebola.
Brantly’s family said in a statement Tuesday that his condition has improved since being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
“I have been able to see Kent every day, and he continues to improve. I am thankful for the professionalism and kindness of Dr. Ribner and his team at Emory University Hospital. I know that Kent is receiving the very best medical treatment available,” said Brantly’s wife, Amber Brantly. “I am also thrilled to see that Nancy arrived safely in Atlanta today. Our families are united in our faith in Jesus, and we will walk through this recovery time together.”
But Coulter wasn’t thrilled. In her latest column, titled “Ebola Doc’s Condition Downgraded to ‘Idiotic,’” she said Brantly’s good deeds in serving West Africa’s Ebola patients were erased by the costs incurred by the two Catholic charities who paid to fly him back to America. She said Brantly “would have done more good” if he practiced in an American hospital and “turned one single Hollywood power-broker to Christ.”
“Whatever good Dr. Kent Brantly did in Liberia has now been overwhelmed by the more than $2 million already paid by the Christian charities Samaritan's Purse and SIM USA just to fly him and his nurse home in separate Gulfstream jets, specially equipped with medical tents, and to care for them at one of America's premier hospitals,” she wrote.



And that’s just the “toned-down version” of Coulter’s thoughts, according to a response she wrote to a Twitter user about the column.