The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations landed in Guinea early Sunday on the first leg of her visit to Ebola-stricken West Africa, a high-profile trip aimed at drumming up more international support for combating the deadly virus.
Ambassador Samantha Power will spend several days visiting Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia - the three countries hardest hit by the outbreak of the deadly virus - before heading to Brussels.
Power told NBC News that she wants to identify what can be done differently on the ground by the U.N. or U.S. and bring those insights with her to Brussels and beyond in order to mobilize the commitment of more resources to fight Ebola.
'The international response to Ebola needs to be taken to a wholly different scale than it is right now,' Powers told NBC News as she boarded her plane to Guinea. 'You have countries at the United Nations where I work every day who are signing on to resolutions and praising the good work that the United States and the United Kingdom and others are doing, but they themselves haven't taken the responsibility yet to send docs, to send beds, to send the reasonable amount of money.'
Power is expected to visit Ebola coordination centers, meet with senior local officials and with U.S. and U.N. personnel on the ground.
The ambassador said her visit itself sends a powerful message to the American public, which has been gripped by fears about an Ebola outbreak on U.S. soil since the death of a man from Ebola in Texas and subsequent diagnoses of nurses who treated him.
'It will be showing in the mere fact of going as a member of the president's cabinet that we shouldn't be afraid,' she said, noting that even her 5-year-old son is 'obsessed' with Ebola. 'We need to take trips like this, we need to be part of the solution and not run away from something, 'cause it'll come to us if we don't deal with it at its source.'
Power's departure for West Africa came after New York instituted new quarantine policies following the Ebola diagnosis of a doctor who had returned to the U.S. after treating Ebola patients in Guinea.
It was not immediately clear if Power will be quarantined upon her return to the U.S., but the ambassador told NBC News that being able to send health workers to affected countries and bring them home safely is 'a very important part of the solution' to ending the crisis.
'The American people as a whole and the U.S. government, all of us need to make clear what these health workers mean to us and how much we value their service,' she said when asked if the quarantine policies were an overreaction. 'We need to find a way when they come home that they are treated like conquering heroes and not stigmatized for the tremendous work that they've done.
The ambassador repeatedly praised health workers as 'heroes' and said 'many more' are needed to put an end to the outbreak.
'We cannot take measures here that are going to impact our ability to flood the zone,' Powers added. 'We have to find the right balance between addressing the legitimate fears that people have and encouraging and incentivizing these heroes.'
In-Depth - Cassandra Vinograd contributed to this report.
First published October 26 2014, 1:17 AM
Chris Jansing is an MSNBC anchor and host of Jansing and Co., which airs weekdays on MSNBC at 10 a.m. ET, as well as an NBC news correspondent and anchor. Jansing joined NBC News in June 1998. She anchored MSNBC’s coverage of the terrorist attacks on September 11 as the events unfolded. She has extensively covered several presidential campaigns and hosted a series of primetime reports called “Battleground America.†She has anchored major breaking stories including Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans; the shooting tragedies in Tucson and Aurora, Colorado; the nuclear crisis in Japan; and the Olympic Games in Torino, Vancouver and London. Jansing was also in London for the Royal Wedding, and Rome for the beatification of Pope John Paul II. She was with Pope John Paul II during his historic visit to Israel, and anchored MSNBC’s coverage from Rome for his funeral as well as the election of Pope Benedict. Her reporting for NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and the TODAY Show has included the 2008 presidential campaign, the volcano eruption in Iceland, and the death of Michael Jackson. She has filed reports from Bolivia to Vietnam to Afghanistan, and across the U.S. Jansing’s duties also include work as a correspondent for Dateline NBC, Rock Center, and as a substitute anchor for Weekend TODAY and the weekend edition of NBC Nightly News. Before joining the NBC News team, Jansing co-anchored the nightly news for WNYT-TV Albany, where she was honored with numerous awards for excellence in journalism, including two Emmys. She also received many community service awards for her commitment to children. A native of Ohio, Jansing graduated with honors from Otterbein College and holds two honorary doctorates. She lives in New York City.
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