A slightly ironic headline, given the government-supported source: “Firestone Did What Governments Have Not: Stopped Ebola In Its Tracks.”

From NPR:

Firestone detected its first Ebola case on March 30, when an employee’s wife arrived from northern Liberia. She’d been caring for a disease-stricken woman and was herself diagnosed with the disease. Since then Firestone has done a remarkable job of keeping the virus at bay. It built its own treatment center and set up a comprehensive response that’s managed to quickly stop transmission. Dr. Brendan Flannery, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s team in Liberia, has hailed Firestone’s efforts as resourceful, innovative and effective.

When he was asked what was most needed in the fight against Ebola, Flannery answered: “More Firestones.”

The critical difference here is that Firestone, unlike, say, the makers of ZMapp, didn’t really have to beg the U.S. federal government’s permission to take such measures as it saw were needed. Maybe one day we’ll get around to figuring out that government’s job is to help enable capital and creativity to do their thing, rather than to inhibit them.