The Ebola fighters are Time Magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’

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Time Magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2014 is not one individual, but many. The magazine's editors announced Wednesday morning that the workers who have risked their lives this year to treat the largest Ebola outbreak in history would be honored on its annual marquee cover. In 2014, Ebola has claimed the lives of more than 6,000 people in West Africa.

The magazine selected these front-line caregivers from a list of eight finalists, public since Monday. The Ebola workers beat out pop music artist Taylor Swift, Apple CEO Tim Cook, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Alibaba founder and CEO Jack Ma, the Ferguson protesters, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kurdish leader Massoud Karzani. The last four were named as runners-up on Wednesday.

"For their tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to strengthen its defenses, for the risks they took and the lives they saved, the Ebola fighters are Time's 2014 Person of the Year," Time editor Nancy Gibbs said in a video posted on the magazine's Web site.

In an essay explaining the magazine's choice, Gibbs wrote: "Ebola is a war, and a warning. The global health system is nowhere close to strong enough to keep us safe from infectious disease, and 'us' means everyone, not just those in faraway places where this is one threat among many that claim lives every day. The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and women are willing to stand and fight."

It is hardly the first time in the 'Person of the Year' feature's 87-year history that the title has been bestowed on a wide group of people, rather than a single named person or persons. In 2011, the magazine put "The Protester" on its cover, following the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street protests. Way back in 1970 it highlighted "The Middle Americans" on its cover.

Time has run the feature, which highlights the year's most influential newsmaker, each year since 1927. That year, it named Charles Lindbergh "Man of the Year" (as the magazine originally and long called the distinction). The annual feature began not out of editorial foresight for an enduring franchise, but because it was a slow news week and, as legend has it, because Time's editors realized they had failed to put Lindbergh on the cover that year despite his historic transatlantic crossing in May.

Over the years, recipients have included many U.S. presidents, business leaders, dictators and even a couple of inanimate objects, such as the personal computer. A relatively small number of women have been recognized, including Philippine President Corazon Aquino in 1987 and a trio of whistleblowers in 2002. In 2013, the magazine selected Pope Francis.

The definition the editors use to select the winner is: the person or persons who "most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year." With that in mind, those featured on the cover have not always been admirable figures or forces for good. Adolf Hitler famously made the cover in 1938, and Joseph Stalin was recognized twice.

The doctors, nurses and other front-line workers helping to care for Ebola patients have, of course, been selfless, inspiring and courageous forces for good. According to the World Health Organization, 622 health care workers are known to have been infected with Ebola through the end of November; 346 of them have died. This tally includes the two nurses who were infected while caring for an Ebola patient in a Texas hospital, raising questions about U.S. hospitals' readiness to deal with a wider outbreak.

They also face a much higher risk of infection from the virus, which has now claimed more than 6,000 lives and infected more than 17,000 people. A new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tuesday said the incidence rate of Ebola cases in Sierra Leone, one of the West African nations hardest hit by the outbreak, was about 100 times higher for health care workers than it was for other people in the country.

Despite these greater risks, some vow to continue the fight, even after being infected themselves. For instance, Sierra Leone doctor Komba Songu-M’briwa, who treated a fellow Sierra Leone physician who died after being transported to Omaha for treatment, contracted the disease himself. Speaking from an isolation room, he told the Associated Press that the Ebola field work was "the 'most difficult, most pitiful' work of his life." Still, he vowed to return. As he told the wire service, "I don't have regrets because I'm enjoying my job, and I think it's been a blessing to other people."

While Time announced its editors' choice of the Ebola caregivers on Wednesday, readers had already selected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as their preference for Person of the Year. The Indian leader, who won a landslide victory on a campaign that promised to repair India's economy, received 16 percent of the almost 5 million votes that readers cast, topping choices such as Hong Kong protest leader Joshua Wong, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, as well as the Ferguson protesters and Ebola caregivers.

Time reported that high numbers of readers from India helped push Modi to the top. Readers from more than 225 countries participated, it said, with votes from India coming in at 17 percent of the total tally.