Posted on 10/03/2014 10:11:43 AM PDT by Kaslin
In light of the first case of Ebola in the United States emerging earlier this week after Thomas Duncan traveled to and from the country of Liberia to attend a funeral (and then knowing he was infected, lied on a medical form before hopping on a flight back), many people are asking why flight bans or restrictions to Ebola stricken countries have not been put in place.
On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest essentially argued that because America has the ability to treat the disease, that it is unnecessary to implement travel restrictions in order to prevent it from coming here.
Speaking from the White House Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest dodged questions about why flights from countries with Ebola outbreaks are still being accepted to the United States. He did not detail any future plans to stop flights from those countries, or to track connections through Europe to those countries, despite the first case of Ebola showing up in the U.S. after a Liberian man went to a funeral in West Africa and then returned home to Dallas.
In his justification of the administration continuing to allow flights, Earnest argued that because people carrying Ebola don't have symptoms when they get on planes, there isn't a need to limit travel.
Earnest said Ebola will be handled through "rigorously applying medical procedures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control."
Now, CDC Director Tom Frieden is doubling down on the Obama administration's refusal to implement travel restrictions, arguing shutting down borders to Ebola stricken countries could make the situation worse and won't necessarily stop the deadly disease from spreading. What?
"I wish we could get to zero risk by sealing off the border. But we can’t. The only way we are going to get to zero risk in this country is by controlling it in Africa. Until that happens, Americans may come back with Ebola. Other people who have a right to return or a visa to enter may come back. People will go to third countries and come from there. Sealing them off – first off won’t work. Second off, it will backfire. Because if we can’t get help in there, then we’re not going to be able to stop the outbreak and ultimately we will end up at higher risk, not lower risk," he said.
Dr. Tom Frieden explains how the CDC is fighting Ebola
First, nobody is arguing flights carrying medical personnel should be banned in and out of West Africa. People who argue for flight restrictions are referring to flights that allow anyone from the U.S. to get on a plane and head to Liberia or other countries and then returning after filling out a less than effective medical screening form. The man with the case of Ebola in Dallas isn't a medical worker, he went over to attend a funeral and after helping a woman sick with the disease and came back to the U.S. anyway. Second, France, England and a slew of Africa countries have either restricted travel or sealed off borders to prevent the disease from spreading.
So how exactly is the CDC screening for Ebola before people leave West Africa for the U.S.? What preventative measures are being taken? As he said in the clip above, "We are doing very good temperature screening. That is, where it is going to be the most efficient. That is where they have a few hundred people leaving. We're using approved devices, trained staff checking every person who is leaving each of the three countries to see if they have a fever. [If you] screen people here, instead of a few hundred it would be a few hundred thousand, it would be inaccurate. And this is the way that we think we're going to be most effective at keeping people who are having a fever from getting on planes."
There's just one huge problem with that. People can have Ebola and not show symptoms for days, just as the man in Dallas did. A reminder of the timeline.
According to the CDC, the patient being treated came back from Liberia after attending a funeral on September 19. The patient's symptoms started on September 24 and hospitalization began on September 28 in Dallas. Several family members to the patient may have been exposed. Because the patient did not get sick until four days after getting off the airplane, nobody who flew with the patient is at risk.
And finally, while the CDC says the other passengers on the same planes as Duncan were at no risk of catching the disease because he wasn't showing symptoms, the agency and airline are frantically trying to track down all of the passengers who were on those planes...for some reason.
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I thought he was showing "flu symptoms" on first flight out of Liberia.
I would like to know how they can clean & decontaminate things like upholstery, without destroying it?
There are only 19 level 4 bio-containment facilities in the US and 4 in UK....http://www.thedailysheeple.com/there-are-only-19-level-4-bio-containment-beds-in-the-whole-of-the-united-states-and-four-in-the-uk_102014
There are inadequate facilities in the US to handle ebola with an outbreak. Also, is anyone following the recent shortages of normal saline supplies for hospitals?
Last January, there were saline shortages...http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/27/saline-intravenous-shortage/4944169/
Where is the acting Surgeon General of the US?
Sounds good to me
And this guy like Obola is the “smartest” man in the room./s
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3210681/posts
PRESIDENT EBOLA: In 2010 Obama Administration Scrapped CDC Quarantine Regulations Aimed At Ebola
The Daily Caller ^ | 10/3/2014 | Eric Owens
In October 2014, the first patient on American soil infected with the Ebola virus sits in isolation in a Texas hospital, prompting calls for travel restrictions between the United States and Ebola-stricken countries.
Meanwhile, four years ago, the administration of President Barack Obama moved with virtually no fanfare to abandon a comprehensive set of regulations which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had called essential to preventing international travelers from spreading deadly diseases inside the United States.
The CDC had proposed the regulations in 2005 under the administration of George W. Bush, reported USA Today in 2010. The original impetus for the regulations was fear that avian flu would spread unchecked.
The regulations proposed under the Bush administration would have granted the federal government a power of “provisional quarantine” to confine airline passengers involuntarily for up to three days if they exhibit symptoms of certain infectious diseases. Federal officials would also have been able to quarantine passengers exposed to people with those symptoms.
There was a fairly long list of diseases. It included smallpox, yellow fever, diphtheria, pandemic flu, infectious tuberculosis, cholera — and viral fevers such as Ebola.
Before the Obama administration withdrew the proposed new rules, CDC officials had emphasized that they would only invoke the involuntary “provisional quarantine” when someone exhibiting a set of symptoms refused to work with federal officials voluntarily.
The proposed rules also would have compelled airlines to inform the CDC about sick passengers and to maintain contact information about all fliers in case the CDC and other federal agencies need to investigate a serious disease outbreak.
Airline lobbyists vehemently opposed the regulations. It would be too expensive, they said.
“We think that the CDC was right to withdraw the proposed rule,” Air Transport Association spokeswoman Elizabeth Merida told USA Today in March 2010. Merida also called the regulations “unprecedented” in terms of cost and red tape.
Civil liberties advocates also strongly opposed the CDC regulations.
“The fact that they’re backing away from this very coercive style of quarantine is good news,” ACLU legislative counsel Christopher Calabrese said in 2010, according to USA Today.
Other critics suggested that air travel regulations make no difference concerning disease outbreaks.
“They probably learned during H1N1 that this hope of preventing diseases from entering the country by stationing people at airports is unrealistic,” Jennifer Nuzzo of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center told the newspaper.
The H1N1 flu virus caused a worldwide pandemic in 2009.
The first man in the United States to be diagnosed with the deadly Ebola virus is Thomas Eric Duncan. He picked up the virus after traveling to Liberia in September.
The State Department has dismissed calls for restricting travel from West Africa.
“I don’t believe that’s something we’re considering,” a Foggy Bottom spokeswoman said this week, according to The Washington Times.
Florida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson, among others, has a called for such restrictions. Grayson, one of the earliest proponents for federal action on Ebola, wants a 90-day ban on travel from countries where the virus has broken out.
Other critics of the tepid Obama administration response have warned of “Ebola tourism.” The concern, as the Times explains, is that people will become infected with Ebola and come to the United States seeking its exceptional level of medical care.
Much better
Political correctness trumps public safety.
Start calling the airlines. Don’t trust the government to do the right thing for once. But if the airlines know passengers will boycott airlines that fly to west africa, or fly connecting passengers, they will stop the flights themselves.
That says it all
The 101st Airborne needs to land on the White House roof, not Liberia.
...real crazy people...
1 or 2 cases now...a thousand in a month, 10,000 in 3 months...
we ought to start a pool
That might help temporarily. But what really needs to be done is at Immigration and Passport control. Anybody holding an Ebola country passport or visa needs to be stopped before even boarding the airplane (or boat).
Of course, these are government jobs, so here we are - back at the same wide open border again...
By the way, where the hell are the Republicans on this? I haven't heard a word from these cowering weasels yet.
Isn’t it time for Zero to throw Dr Tom Frieden and a few other of the CDC people under the bus?
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