Looking back on her experience leading Liberia through the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf shared reflections on the current coronavirus crisis:

“In the face of the coronavirus outbreak, I am making a similar plea to my fellow world citizens. I do this with an acute awareness that while African nations have so far been spared the worst, it is only a matter of time until it batters the continent which is the least prepared to fight it. We must act to slow down, break the chain of transmission, and flatten the curve.”

Comparing the global coronavirus response strategy to that of Ebola, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said:

“Watching from my home in Monrovia, what most encourages today, is the opening up of expertise and the fact that knowledge, scientific discovery, equipment, medicines and personnel are being shared.

 It is happening within nations, and increasingly across international borders; an indispensable, albeit delayed reaction, that every person, in every nation, needs to do their part.

This realisation led to our turning point of disease control in West Africa. In Liberia, we emerged resilient from the Ebola epidemic, and stronger as a society, with health protocols in place that are enabling us to manage the Covid-19 disease. I fervently believe this is the path we are all on.”

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