Widow of Ebola Victim: 'Ebola is Everyone's Problem'
The battle against Ebola hit home for one American woman in Minnesota when her husband became the first American victim of the disease.
Patrick Sawyer was diagnosed with Ebola after traveling to Nigeria from Liberia for a business conference. He died just days later, leaving behind Kofa and their three children.
Founder and Executive Director of the Kofa Foundation, and the widow of the late Patrick Sawyer, Decontee Kofa has now made it her mission to help survivors and family members of those battling infections disease because she believes that “Ebola is everyone’s problem. It's all of our problems.’
She feels that emergence of an Ebola patient in Dallas, Texas, has made that more apparent.
“The thing is that this is a wake-up call that Ebola can come here at any time,” she tells CNN's Michaela Pereira.
But Kofa urges calm that there is still no reason to panic here because the health care system in the United States is better equipped to handle it than that in West Africa.
She also mentions the fear of catching it in America is especially being directed at the Liberian American community and cautions against that.
The Liberian American community is afraid of being stigmatized, she said. “They don't want to be ostracized because they're Liberians.”
Sympathizing with the family of the patient being quarantined in Dallas, Kofa shared a message on “New Day” saying, “You’re not alone ... Stay calm. Listen to the instructions. Don't leave your home. We're praying with you. And we hope that all is well.”
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Should Fans Stop Watching NFL Games?
Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson will be back on the field this weekend, even as the team begins to feel fallout over the controversy.
On “New Day” Tuesday, Steve Almond, a contributing writer to “The New York Times Magazine” and The Boston Globe, said the move shows the NFL has “a cash register where normal human beings have a conscience, so they’re going to do whatever they need to do to keep the product going.”
The author of "Against Football – One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto," said that if fans are outraged, the onus is on them to “stop watching the game, stop paying their salaries.”
Meanwhile, former Baltimore Raven Ray Rice is expected to appeal his indefinite suspension from the NFL by midnight.
CNN commentator and legal analyst Mel Robbins said Rice deserves another chance, but the NFL should stick to its six-game suspension rule because it hits the players where it hurts.
“Clearly, these guys do not respect women. They don’t respect kids," she said.
"But they do respect being pulled off the field.”
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