If doctors can’t help West Africa, I’m fairly certain aging rock stars and hipster boy-bands will.

A collection of mostly European pop stars have decided to reprise “Do They Know It’s Christmas” — a tune penned for famine relief in Ethiopia — and tweak it to fit the current Ebola crisis in the region. So far, it’s a star-studded affair, with the likes of Bono, Chris Martin (of Coldplay) and Sinead O’Connor stepping in for George Michael and Bananarama this time.

They’re hoping it’s a success like 1984, when the original “Band Aid” helped sell 3.7 million albums and raise about $12 million for the nation not many had heard of before they heard the song. Organizer Bob Geldof, the lead vocalist for the Boomtown Rats in the Irish new-wave band’s heyday, said he’s persuaded the British government to waive taxes on the single — which, the hope is, will mean all money raised will go to charity. Users of Spotify and other streaming services can download it starting in January.

My first thoughts on the effort were as cynical about the effort as the late comedian Sam Kinison’s was on the topic of starving children. Suffice it to say he believed in self-determination on the issue. And remember, the term “limousine liberal” and other sideways terms were coined because of this kind of disaster-chasing on the part of celebrities. The summer after Band Aid gave us the “Live Aid” concerts and “We Are The World”. Many bought those little 45’s just to hear whether Michael Jackson or Cyndi Lauper had the most distinctive voice. I remember an HBO behind-the-scenes feature on “World” where Lauper was told to remove her huge earrings because they could be heard over the song itself.

But this is a new and different kind of tragedy, this is Ebola. The hysteria in the U.S. caused by aid worker Eric Duncan’s death in September resembled the worst of the AIDS panic in the 1980s. It’s not easy to catch and spread by body fluids. Yet, some unfortunate, longstanding customs and cultural mores in hard-hit Sierra Leone and Liberia have helped the disease blossom. We don’t eat the meat of primates or winged bats in the U.S., therefore we don’t have about 5,000 dead as in West Africa.

If Geldof and his co-organizers are smart, they’ll promote the song to the hilt and keep glitzy public appearances to a minimum. The money will be better spent paying for the supplies and assistance the United Nations and other agencies say is needed most in the region.

As with taxes, I’ve gathered that people feel better about these things when they know the money goes to the intended purpose. If organizers’ effort is genuine, the re-formed Band Aid will have to cut an entire album’s worth of tunes to get Ebola under control.

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Danny Barrett is a reporter and can be reached by email at danny.barrett@vicksburgpost.com or by phone at 601-636-4545.