Every year, TIME magazine chooses who to acknowledge as the most influential or innovative person. This year, it’s more than one, and the honor is going to those who are not only putting their lives at risk to help battle the outbreak that has killed more than 6,000 people so far, they are also facing extreme stigma built upon fear.
A full cover story and extensive online profiles of individuals illustrates what it means to be one of the people acting courageously for the purpose of helping others.
BioLabs Pegasus Park Cultivates Life Science Ecosystem
Gabby Everett, the site director for BioLabs Pegasus Park, offered a tour of the space and shared some examples of why early-stage life science companies should choose North Texas.
2014 is the year an outbreak turned into an epidemic, powered by the very progress that has paved roads and raised cities and lifted millions out of poverty. This time it reached crowded slums in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone; it traveled to Nigeria and Mali, to Spain, Germany and the U.S. It struck doctors and nurses in unprecedented numbers, wiping out a public-health infrastructure that was weak in the first place. One August day in Liberia, six pregnant women lost their babies when hospitals couldn’t admit them for complications. Anyone willing to treat Ebola victims ran the risk of becoming one.
Although the Ebola outbreak has mostly affected West Africa, the reality and fear of the situation has spread worldwide, which lends to why TIME made the decision to make their annual honor one that is relevant to societies as a whole.
(Taylor Swift was up for the award, but this feels just a tad more appropriate.)
