On Saturday, Jan. 11, as we entered the final week of the Biden-Harris administration, I got a call about a suspected Marburg outbreak in Tanzania. Marburg virus disease is like its close cousin Ebola, but worse. It can have a mortality rate as high as 80% and, unlike at least one strain of Ebola, we do not have an approved vaccine or treatment for Marburg. Our best hope for protecting Americans when an outbreak like this occurs is to stop it at its source. When the World Health Organization heard about the suspected outbreak, one of their first actions was to alert the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The call was not a complete surprise. These outbreaks are increasing in frequency — this was the 12th Marburg or Ebola outbreak we faced during the Biden-Harris administration. But we had made it to January 2025 without a single case of either disease in the United States. One of the reasons we were successful was that we had a plan in place — a playbook — for responding to biological threats, which we implemented quickly and aggressively every time there was a new outbreak. We had partners in place, from WHO to vaccine manufacturers, who were on standby and ready to act. We had emergency funding available that could quickly be redirected. And we had people — at the National Security Council and across federal departments and agencies — who had responded to countless biological threats, could get on a plane at a moment’s notice if needed, and, most importantly, who knew how to keep Americans safe.
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