Federal health officials oppose Ebola travel ban
Government health officials in the US oppose the growing clamor to seal off borders to travelers from Ebola-hit countries in West Africa.
They say a travel ban will make it much more difficult to stop the spread of the deadly virus.
There is growing pressure on the Obama administration to place a ban on travelers from Ebola-stricken regions following the hospitalization of Ebola-infected Thomas Eric Duncan, who flew to Dallas from Liberia.
Duncan’s condition worsened over the weekend and is he is now in a critical condition in a Dallas hospital.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said any travel ban to West African countries would only make it much harder stem the spread of the disease.
"If you isolate them, you can cause unrest in the country and it’s conceivable that governments could fall if you just isolate them completely," Fauci said.
Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that a ban on incoming flights would impact Americans trying to fly home and by cutting off countries could lead to the virus spreading elsewhere in Africa.
"We don’t want to do something that inadvertently increases our risk by making it harder to stop the outbreak there, because if it spreads more widely throughout different countries in Africa, that will be even more of a risk to us," Frieden said.
"There are many other people who have the right to enter into this country and we’re not going to be able to get to zero risk no matter what we do until we control the outbreak in West Africa," he added.
Many US lawmakers have taken an opposing view urging the administration to halt all air travel to the region.
"The Obama administration keeps saying they won’t shut down flights and instead say we should listen to ‘the experts,’ and they said it would be counterproductive to stop these flights. That statement defies logic," argued Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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