Policy concepts and applications

Policy Proposal

The public policy proposal is that the state should have an action plan for a potential Ebola outbreak. There are several reasons for this. The first reason is the health reason, where clearly there is a need to ensure that should there be any outbreak of Ebola, that it is contained, and that it does not get out into the general public. While the odds of an outbreak are minimal, they are possible as long as people are able to travel from affected regions to our state. As such, state officials should have a plan for containing an outbreak, and dealing with the aftermath of an outbreak, which could be fairly serious in terms of public anxiety.

The second reason why the state should have an action plan for Ebola is that it requires a coordinated effort to control the spread of this disease. No one agency or person can be relied upon to contain a potential Ebola outbreak. Typically, health care, transportation, law enforcement and other bodies are all involved in such containment, and that requires a high level of coordination, something that the state can provide. When Nigeria was declared free of Ebola, the list of agencies and bodies involved in the containment effort was very long, highlighting the need for a plan to be in place prior to any cases so that coordination of efforts among these bodies is smooth (Kroll, 2014).