Obama: Ebola still priority as public focus shifts

US President Barack Obama tours a lab with Dr. Nancy Sullivan to talk about Ebola while he visits the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland December 2, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

Obama called attention to the administration's announcement Tuesday that it has set up a network of 35 hospitals across the US to deal with Ebola patients. It also said that the number of labs that can test for Ebola has increased from 13 in 13 states in August to 42 labs in 36 states.

The White House said the administration has also increased the deployment of civilians and military personnel in West Africa, bumping the US presence to about 200 civilians and 3,000 troops. It said the US has opened three Ebola treatment units and a hospital in Liberia.

The upbeat White House report contrasts with an assessment from Doctors Without Borders, which said Tuesday that the international response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa has been slow and uneven. It said the international community has for the most part concentrated on building Ebola management structures, but most of the hands-on work is being done by local people, national governments and non-governmental organizations.

Obama stressed the role of science while praising the medical advances against the disease, a not-too subtle rebuke of what the White House maintained was over-reaction by some politicians to the threat of Ebola in the United States.

"The basic concept of science, and making judgments on the basis of evidence, that's what's most needed during difficult, challenging moments like the ones that we had this summer and that we continue to have in West Africa," he said.