NICK GILLESPIE: The Upside of Ebola (Yes, There May Actually Be One).

The ineptitude of the official response to Ebola, both here and in Africa, drives home the need the change the ways in which we go about developing new medical interventions. As my Reason colleague Ronald Bailey has written, quick diagnostic tests for Ebola had been developed years ago and promising work was proceeding on a vaccine and other methods of disrupting epidemics, but it all floundered in a regulatory environment that doesn’t move very quickly until it’s too late. Indeed, in August, just as the Ebola epidemic was exploding in Africa, the FDA put a hold on a Canadian company’s treatment program. (The FDA has since reversed the hold.)

I’m sure evil Republican budget cuts forced the FDA to put that hold on.