Writing in TIME, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and EJS Center Board Member Dr. Raj Panjabi shared difficult lessons learned from Liberia’s Ebola epidemic in 2015-2016, and five recommendations to strengthen global response to COVID-19 based on their experiences.

They highlighted the crucial importance of strong political leadership in managing public health crises:

“When epidemics strike, fear, anxiety and despair can be agonizing. But as we learned during Liberia’s Ebola epidemic, we are not defined by the conditions we face, no matter how hopeless they seem – we are defined by how we respond to them. Decisive political leadership and global cooperation – along with every single one of us playing our part – will determine if we win the war against this invisible enemy.”

Read the full article here.