It is a safe bet that Margaret Chan, head of the World Health Organization, won't be relaxing much over the holidays. In January, she faces representatives of 34 governments who sit on the WHO's executive board. And they are hopping mad about Ebola. A clutch of reports from high-level panels have agreed that dithering by this United Nations agency in 2014 was partly what turned an outbreak in Guinea into the worst-ever epidemic of the virus. At last count, it had stricken 28,600 people, killed 11,300 and cost billions - and at one point almost became too big to rein in. Almost. The epidemic was on course for apocalyptic case numbers in mid-2014; epidemiologists feared the virus would become a constant presence in the region, and even beyond. But the WHO, the world - and the people in affected countries, who changed their behaviour to stop contagion - rallied in time. It now seems all but over.
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