Ann Coulter blames doctor for catching Ebola

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter criticized the American doctor who contracted Ebola in Africa, arguing that his missionary efforts had caused more harm than good.

“Whatever good Dr. Kent Brantly did in Liberia has now been overwhelmed by the more than $2 million already paid by the Christian charities Samaritan’s Purse and SIM USA just to fly him and his nurse home in separate Gulfstream jets, specially equipped with medical tents, and to care for them at one of America’s premier hospitals,” wrote Coulter in a post for Human Events.

{mosads}Brantly and fellow aid worker Nancy Writebol were recently diagnosed with the Ebola virus in West Africa and brought back to the U.S. to be treated with an experimental new drug at an isolation ward at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

Coulter led her comments with the controversial headline “Ebola doc’s condition downgraded to ‘idiotic.’ ”

The conservative pundit suggested the doctor invited the risk of catching Ebola by traveling to Africa and that missionaries preferred to help those overseas rather than the needy at home because they wanted to be seen as “heroic.”

“Why did Dr. Brantly have to go to Africa? The very first ‘risk factor’ listed by the Mayo Clinic for Ebola — an incurable disease with a 90 percent fatality rate — is: ‘Travel to Africa,’ ” said Coulter. “Can’t anyone serve Christ in America anymore?”

Samaritan’s Purse, the charity Brantly worked for, had no comment on Coulter’s statement.

Health officials are scrambling to deal with the deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus in Africa.

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that the death toll had topped 900.