President Obama just gave newly cured Ebola patient Nina Pham a hug

last updated 8 January 2015

Perhaps President Obama's biggest role in America's Ebola crisis is "calmer-in-chief." A photo taken Friday is pretty good evidence of how seriously he's taking the job.

Nina Pham — the Texas Presbyterian Hospital nurse who was the first health care worker to contract Ebola from Thomas Eric Duncan — was declared Ebola-free and released from NIH hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, this afternoon. Before heading home to Dallas, Pham made a stop at The White House to receive a goodbye hug from the president himself:

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Mike Barry is the senior editor of audience development and outreach at TheWeek.com. He was previously a contributing editor at The Huffington Post. Prior to that, he was best known for interrupting a college chemistry class.