WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is highlighting advances in research for an Ebola vaccine and pushing Congress to approve his request for $6.2 billion to confront the disease abroad and to secure against its spread in the United States.
Obama was to visit the National Institutes of Health in Washington’s Maryland suburbs Tuesday. He planned to congratulate NIH director Francis Collins and the director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, for their work on a vaccine.
A study published by U.S. researchers last week concluded an experimental Ebola vaccine appears safe and triggered signs of immune protection in volunteers who tested it.
Obama’s request for money to confront Ebola is pending before Congress. White House spokesman Josh Earnest says lawmakers should “take prompt action on this.”
