Scientists are racing to stop a type of Ebola we have no vaccine for

A new Ebola outbreak has killed hundreds—and the U.S. response is alarming experts

A deadly Ebola outbreak is spreading fast—and U.S. cuts to foreign aid are making it worse

By Rachel Feltman , Tanya Lewis , Fonda Mwangi & Alex Sugiura

Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American ’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. Instead of going through a series of news stories you may have missed last week, we’re going to focus on one major headline today.

[CLIP: Marco Rubio speaks at a cabinet meeting: “The number one priority of our foreign policy is to protect the American people. We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States.”]

Feltman : That was U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking at a cabinet meeting on May 27.

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On May 15 health officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared that the country was in the midst of an ebola outbreak. Two days later, the director general of the World Health Organization designated the spread of Ebola in the DRC and Uganda as a public health emergency of international concern.