TIME Selects 'The Ebola Fighters' as Person of the Year

TIME has selected the Ebola fighters as its Person of the Year, passing over Apple CEO Tim Cook in the process.

Cook was on the shortlist for Person of the Year alongside the Ferguson protesters, Vladimir Putin, Taylor Swift, Jack Ma, Masoud Barzani, and Roger Goodell.


TIME explained its decision in a post today.

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. For tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defenses, for risking, for persisting, for sacrificing and saving, the Ebola fighters are TIME’s 2014 Person of the Year.