An Ebola travel ban would be completely unprecedented - Here's why (Spinning for Obola)

CNN Politics ^ | October 17, 2014 | Jeremy Diamond

[2ndDivisionVet]

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)

There's a lot of information out there on the Ebola crisis. And now, the issue's gone political with increasingly vocal talk on Capitol Hill and in midterm campaigns calling for a travel ban to keep the disease from spreading in the U.S.

Let's sort through the muck and get to the facts:

What's all this talk about a travel ban to deal with the Ebola outbreak?

Some Republican lawmakers and a handful of Democrats are calling for a travel ban on people from the West African countries most affected by the disease.

In Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, more than 4,400 people have died of the disease and one person has died of the disease in the U.S.

That patient was diagnosed and ultimately died at a Texas hospital and now Gov. Rick Perry is joining calls for a travel ban after two nurses at the hospital contracted the disease.

"Air travel is, in fact, how this disease crosses borders and it's certainly how it got to Texas in the first place," Perry said. "I believe it is the right policy to ban air travel from countries that have been hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak."(continued)

[2ndDivisionVet]

They couldn't care less about the people of this country.

[MeganC]

I disagree. The left has invested a lot of effort into destroying us.

[conservative98]

11 beds for ebola and 150 people coming in every day.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Math was never the Liberals strong suit

[DoughtyOne]

This warrants the five Bs response.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

I don't know who has a corner on the stupid pills, but they must be making a killing these days..., hmmm, even literally.


Ramirez's latest political cartoon LARGE VERSION 10/17/2014: LINK  LINK to regular sized version of Ramirez's latest, and an archive of his political cartoons.
In this political cartoon, Ramirez presents, "the EBOLA bomb"

FReepers, 20% of the FReepathon goal has been met.  Please click above and pencil in your donation now.  Lets retire this effort early this quarter. Thank you!
...this is a general all purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

[maggief]

[clintonh8r]

An ebola travel ban would be completely unprecedented in this country

Yes, moron, and EBOLA is completely unprecedented in this country, but guess what....the virus apparently doesn't give a shit about precedent!!!

[FlingWingFlyer]

I don’t see where a temporary ban on air travel is any different what the “nation of immigrants” ancestors had to go through at Ellis Island. If the DemocRATS don’t want to ban air travel, the least they can do is have all non-Americans and Americans who have been to the infected areas come through Ellis Island where they can be tested and quarantined. Allowing some idiot to fly into Texas who is infected with Ebola was the U.S. Government’s greatest failure to date. Another Obama “Historical” Minute.

[Sequoyah101]

Please call congress and tell them that we must be deadly serious about containing Ebola by strict quarantine within the United States and from infected nations. This is our right and our duty and it is THEIR duty to protect US.

Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121 or Google your congressman or senator and get his contact information and call him / her office directly. You can also call or go to their local offices.

I believe decisive response is urgent because you can’t put this Ebola genie back in the bottle once it gets out. It is a fire, it consumes all the fuel it can get and the fuel is people. The only way to stop a fire is to block it from the fuel or cool it with water. A vaccine or medicine to treat Ebola would be the water and we don’t have reliable, enough or any.

Every possible measure must be taken to stop the spread before draconian measures are imposed. What is being done now is sloppy. We are walking a dangerous road. The threat is blossoming by the day if not hour. Almost every hour there is some new Ebola development and none of them are good. This is a serious and potentially deadly event. Unchecked it could destroy or weaken the United States and facilitate our destruction by others. It has that potential for every country and that is why so many are responding with such strict quarantines. These consequences, no matter how small the probabilities, demand a full effort and significant response.

Ebola is being spread here in the United States right now. First Texas, then Ohio then? Terror is an excellent weapon. It disrupts, confuses, paralyzes and destroys a society. Many others and we on FR have speculated that terrorists may spread Ebola. How do you that remember 9/11 feel right now compared to what you felt then? Do you want to gather your loved ones near you to protect them? I do. Even more than I did on September 11, 2001! Isn’t this passive response by this administration accomplishing the very same things a terrorist would want?
When something is being done that makes as little sense as what Obama is doing there has to be some other reason. I leave it to you dear reader to draw your own conclusions as to the reasons.
What is happening now is insane. It makes no sense at all. For example the head of CDC says: “Stopping travel from Africa won’t do any good because you have to get people into Africa to fight Ebola.” “You can’t get Ebola from an infected person on a bus but an infected person should never be on a bus because he can infect others.” “Blocking travel from infected countries would damage their fragile economies.” What about ours? What about our safety? What about resources we have paid for that should be protecting us?

Even the most despotic dictatorship in Africa has acted to protect his nation by strict quarantine and stopping travel from infected countries. Even CDC, the UN and WHO advocate and credit strict quarantine for nipping the spread of Ebola in the bud at the source in places like Senegal and Nigeria where both have had faster and more successful outbreak controls than we have had here. 35 countries have stopped travel of people from infected West African countries. It is so obvious even a child could understand it so why is it OK for people from infected countries to travel here?
I will post this message and keep posting it until someone stops me.

For further reference:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3216461/posts

[dowcaet]

The WHO just declared the country of Senegal to be Ebola free. They’re right on the borders of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea and they did it by sealing their freaking borders! We’re almost 4000 miles away and we have two cases and probably many more to come. These leftist idiots are going to doom us all!

[tcrlaf]

As has been OFTEN noted, there are people around Obama that likely see an Ebola Epidemic in America as an OPPORTUNITY, not a horrible outcome.

THEY already have their ZMAPP doses safely locked away, so now could be the time to enact Holdren’s radical population control.
Or create so much chaos that a Socialist Dictatorship can be enacted, finally ridding America of privileged White Rule.

I really wish I was just dreaming this all up, but there are people around Obama THAT ACTUALLY THINK THIS WAY, and have said such things in the past.

[Jim Noble]

Quarantine, on the other hand, is well-established in our law and in precedent.

[outofsalt]

Failure of the imagination brought us 9/11.

What if a dozen jihad-is rubbed themselves with Ebola and flew to the US from anywhere in the world? What if they go to NYC, DC, LA, Boston, Chicago, Miami..? Walk around every mall and university till they start getting really sick then blow themselves up with a propane tank? Guts all over? Air travel will shut down along with trains, trucks and automobiles.

If the much maligned pharmaceutical companies cant pull a vaccine out of their pipelines ASAP we are in deep kimchee.
Every resource should be aimed at this goal! Travel bans will not work except in very limited, confined outbreaks and only sheltering in place will keep you even marginally safe.

[Will88]

One means of transmission I haven’t seen discussed in detail is: Sweat. Most every list of bodily fluids that carries the virus mentions sweat.

So, someone infected with ebola works up a good sweat and the sweat dries, as sweat does. The residue of the dried sweat is on the skin, then the individual touches door knobs and tables and chairs, and armrests on buses and planes and leaves some residue from the sweat on the hands and arms.

Then someone comes along and touches the same surfaces and puts their hands to their mouth or eyes, etc.

Haven’t seen the possibilities of transmission by sweat discussed in detail, but if, as I’ve read, the virus can survive two or more hours on many surfaces...

[3boysdad]

Any article that end’s in “here’s why” is a dead give away that it comes directly from the propaganda machine.

[I want the USA back]

A ban is essential. Anyone who disagrees is insane.

[ThomasMore]

No one is asking for a travel ban TO West Africa. But there has to be a termination of travel TO America for anyone who has been to West Africa. And “volunteers” of all types should have a processing time to insure they DO NOT carry the damn disease back to America. This article is full of $h*t

[RushingWater]

Please call congress

Cornyn isn't answering his phone. Why? Just be a stand for nothing man and get re-elected in X number of days. Let ebola ravage the country but don't upset your golf buddies or act like someone with character and propose a travel ban, at least you get to be a Senator for 6 more years - why does he care if Texans are getting Ebola?

[Black Agnes]

In the colonial times, some of my ancestors were quarantined on their ship in Charleston harbor due to smallpox. IIRC they were there nearly 3 months. At their own expense.

Strangely enough, ~230 years later we seem to have gone stupid.

[VerySadAmerican]

Some Republican lawmakers and a handful of Democrats

I assume “some” is considerably more than a “handful”.