Craig Spencer Gives Talk in Detroit on Ebola Experience

Columbia faculty member Craig Spencer, MD, who was successfully treated for Ebola after working with patients in Guinea, spoke to medical students at his alma mater, Wayne State University Medical School, on Feb. 17.

Dr. Spencer, an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and an attending physician in the emergency department of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia, was in Detroit to receive the Global Peacemaker Award from WSU’s Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.

According to the Detroit News, the Doctors Without Borders volunteer spoke about the disparities in resources that allowed him to receive first-class, life-saving treatment at New York’s Bellevue Hospital while thousands of West Africans struggle to receive care. He criticized the unnecessary quarantining of health workers, which discourages others from volunteering, and also warned against complacency, saying that the Ebola crisis is not over.