Page 3 Profile: Ebola Fighters, Time magazine’s person of the year

Ebola Fighters, Time magazine’s person of the year (Reuters)

Not your typical cover stars…

They have been chosen for “tireless acts of courage and mercy”.

Shouldn’t that be “People of the Year”?

The term “person” needn’t be taken too literally here. Since 1927 the US news magazine has selected a person, group, idea or object that “for better or for worse... has done the most to influence the events of the year”. You don’t have to be a good egg to qualify, though. Previous title holders include Hitler (1938), Stalin (1939 and 1942) and George W Bush (2000).

But this year’s winners are undoubtedly heroes…

Time specified that the term “Ebola fighters” refers to everybody on the frontline of the Ebola epidemic: the doctors and nurses treating patients, the ambulance attendants and burial teams. In an article published on Time’s website yesterday, managing editor Nancy Gibbs wrote: “For buying the world time to boost its defences.”

There work is far from over, though…

Gibbs also noted: “The global health system is nowhere close to strong enough to keep us safe from infectious disease, and ‘us’ means everyone.”