Why travel bans will only make the Ebola epidemic worse

VOX ^ | 10/15/2014 | Julia Belluz and Steven Hoffman

[Covenantor]

CDC Major Tom, Obama, and WHO keep refusing to stop Guinean, Liberian, and Sierria Leonian passport from flying.

It’s as if their are totally unaware of military air bridges which our folks do with elan an efficiency. Well Golf-Zero might have an excuse.

Given that, what is the real reason? A hanging offense I suspect.

[Common Sense 101]

Julia Belluz and Steven Hoffman are liberal dumbasses. (Yes, it is redundant.)

[kidd]

Some have suggested a half-measure: close borders allowing exceptions for doctors, aid workers, and medical supplies only. The problem with this idea is that responses to humanitarian crises are not well-organized affairs. They're chaos.

This seems to be a leadership issue. I guess we are being told that this administration is not capable of dealing with logistics. Because we don't have leadership, we have to continue to let ebola into America, and Americans will die.

What about the airlines themselves? British Airways and AirFrance have already stopped flights into West Africa. How will this administration handle the "chaos" when United, American and Delta stop their flights?

...The third reason closing borders is nuts is that it will devastate the economies of West Africa and further destroy the limited health systems there.

I would guess that ebola has already done this. Anyone here planning a vaction to Liberia?

[MulberryDraw]

Ted Cruz advocates military transport for Ebola aid, calls for travel ban

Notice the article fails to mention using military transports which could be more easily disinfected.

[TurboZamboni]

And if we keep printing money, we can always ignore the deficit!

[mikrofon]

This kind of sophistry may be pretty to read & make the Liberals feel better, but in the long run will kill us…

You might as well ask why we impose sanctions on certain countries for their actions – I mean, can’t they just circumvent these, or say go around it by using black-markets to acquire prohibited goods? Or what about simple travel bans imposed on nations for strictly political reasons which are FAR less dangerous than a possible epidemic??

[meadsjn]

There are three reasons why it's a crazy idea. The first is that it just won't work.

So there! Pout, hands on hips, stamp the foot. Yep, that'll work. Just because.

[Boogieman]

“In opposing this idea, public health experts unanimously agree: sealing borders will not stop Ebola spread and will only exacerbate the crisis in West Africa — and heighten the risk of a global pandemic.”

BS. If they really thought this, they wouldn’t advocate quarantines for individuals either. Yet, they do, so we know that segregating the infected must work.

[Rockitz]

These guys must be on the Obama administration payroll.

[Toespi]

Just watched the Congressional hearing on Ebola. Freiden is lying right through his teeth. In questioning, he was directly asked if he had conversations with the WH regarding a travel ban, he looked like a deer caught in a headlight and absolutely refused to answer. He was asked numerous times and each time he attempted to change the subject, made senseless comments, and desperately avoided an answer.

[Rockitz]

This must be the administration’s new talking point on this issue.

“The best way to avoid more cases in America is by protecting West Africans.”

I’ve heard both these authors and Frieden making the exact same statment.

[Rockitz]

Just watched the Congressional hearing on Ebola. Freiden is lying right through his teeth. In questioning, he was directly asked if he had conversations with the WH regarding a travel ban, he looked like a deer caught in a headlight and absolutely refused to answer. He was asked numerous times and each time he attempted to change the subject, made senseless comments, and desperately avoided an answer.

This is huge!

We need a citation from transcript.

[mmichaels1970]

Allow Ebola to fester over there, and keep people safe over here.

Nobody is saying that. People are saying that we should take the fight to Ebola over there. Not once have I heard somebody in their right mind say that we need to close our proverbial windows and doors and simply watch people over there die by the thousands. This is a BS argument meant to make people feel guilty about wanting travel bans and border security.

In opposing this idea, public health experts unanimously agree: sealing borders will not stop Ebola spread and will only exacerbate the crisis in West Africa

Unanimous? So EVERY public health expert is saying this? Even if true, how about PRIVATE health experts, ones not beholden the the government. Are they unanimous?

"Even when governments restrict travel and trade, people in affected countries still find a way to move and it is even harder to track them systematically." In other words, determined people will find a way to cross borders anyway, but unlike at airports, we can't track their movements.

Can you promise me that this isn't already happening? Even without a travel ban? And let's say you are tracking their movements. Are you tracking the movements of everybody they come in contact with? Apparently not since the CDC is asking people aboard commercial flights to contact them.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said, "To completely seal off and don't let planes in or out of the West African countries involved, then you could paradoxically make things much worse in the sense that you can't get supplies in, you can't get help in, you can't get the kinds of things in there that we need to contain the epidemic."

BS. Chartered, private, and military flights could be arranged and mobilized. These people spend billions of dollars like it's water from a tap. I refuse to believe that an effective leader couldn't arrange a counter-disease mobilization effort.

The day they flew that first doctor back here, I knew it was a bad idea. He came here and thankfully got better. But what you did was signal to everybody in that region that their best hope is to find a way, any way, to make it to the U.S. Sending our best resources there to treat the doctor and swiftly imposing a travel ban right then would have been our best chance at preventing what we are seeing today.

[SatinDoll]

If it’s such a stupid idea, then why have 30 other nations issued travel bans.

[outpostinmass2]

I am willing to impose a travel ban to West Africa and take my chances. I can’t fathom any reason for travelling to West Africa right now unless you are there to directly fight the ebola outbreak.

Furthermore, they stated in this article that airport screening does not work.

Also point 3 is completely pointless. However wrote this lacks critical thinking and logic skills.

[morphing libertarian]

Only and idiot or a conspirator ignores the safest most effective way to treat ands contain deadly diseases: contain it to the smallest geographic area possible.

[kik5150]

[mmichaels1970]

If it’s such a stupid idea, then why have 30 other nations issued travel bans.

Agreed. And since this article claims:

In opposing this idea, public health experts unanimously agree: sealing borders will not stop Ebola spread and will only exacerbate the crisis in West Africa

They must be doing it against the advice of their "public health experts". After all, they are unanimous that a travel ban won't help.

[cripplecreek]

Forget it Jake.

Its Vox.

[cripplecreek]

Quarantines have been used to prevent the spread of disease for a thousand years.

Even when they thought disease was caused by evil spirits they kept strangers away during outbreaks of disease.