Posted on 10/03/2014 3:33:41 AM PDT by markomalley
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.
State legislatures could bypass the fed device or authority, and just require airlines flying into their state from the Ebola-region to post a bond of twenty million to cover costs if required. That would scare most airlines immediately to stop such flights.
The airlines must be run by morons. They fought the proposed safer travel law because it was deemed “too expensive.” Do they think people will be doing much traveling with Ebola victims on airplanes? They deserve to be boycotted.
That’s fine that Alan Grayson is calling for restrictions on flights to and from the ebola stricken countries, but where are the other congressmen/women? I haven’t heard a peep from anyone about this. This is insanity.
Typhoid Barky.
Maybe that's what the airlines said publicly, but I'm sure there was much more to it than simply the cost of complying with the law.
The bigger issue from the airlines' perspective is that the law would have required them to basically become unpaid recordkeepers for the CDC -- and that the airlines themselves would potentially be exposed to civil liability if they failed to correctly identify "sick passengers" at the point of boarding.
Hoping to quell the herd with the help of the UN WHO CDC and our commies in control
Anyone ? ?
Seems like they also scrapped the “AND PREVENTION” department of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Where are the first responders? Where is the first line of defense? Just a bunch of bureaucrats scratching their heads and pointing fingers.
Bump
I’m not convinced people would limit air travel. Right now I personally know an intelligent person who is continuing with plans for a trip to Turkey despite all the terror/ISIS implications. Even when he was told that traveling to Turkey would land him on various watch lists for life, he plans on making the trip. Incidentally, he will likely end up on various airlines and various airports that have been exposed to Ebola.
I know others who love cruising, are retired, and continue on with multiple cruises/year despite all the norovirus outbreaks.
These are successful people. Some are liberal, some are conservatives, some are RINOS. Most are in their 60s. I detect no fatalism. I think they have extreme cases of normalcy bias. Also, when travel slows down, the fares also decrease and I can vouch for the fact that many people will grab a *bargain*, regardless of risks.
The airlines will respond when they face legal suits.
I keep putting this together with the rabid environmentalists’ call for depopulation.
OK. Have me fitted for a tinfoil hat.
Obama’s Katrina...
Reminds me of California during the first run of Jerry Brown. He REFUSED aerial spraying for the Fruit Flies (which would have wiped out the entire citrus crop in the state), and only relied on ground spraying. The environmentalists LOVED HIM for it. So did the Fruit Flies.
Once he was replaced, the state had to SPRAY LIKE MAD, everywhere. They did manage to knock down the bug, but only after spraying at least 10 times, maybe 100 times as much Malathion as would have been necessary if they had simply sprayed in the first place. I still remember the planes going over and the light mist sprinkling down.
What is needed to be pointed out is that heads of deparments of government while those that are suggested to run them are recomended by the president. They sworn to protect and support the constitution, not the executive branch, and are approved to serve by the Senate in a procedure known as advise and consent. Therefore they and their respective departments are answerable to congress which funds these operations and can refuse an executive order if that order works contrary to existing legislation or the interests of the country ..
While this affected airline travel doesn’t the INS have or had similar regulations for immigration ? Which may have been enacted through legislation. Including background checks ?
Treason.
Almost as bad is we are now finding out.
Boehner, Cruz, Gowdy, Paul, (I am listing republicans, not who is conservative and who is not) Grahamnesty, McCain, no one seems to even have known or are saying...
Would our side have even brought this up?
Much like the welfare work requirement, stroke of a pen and our side doesn’t say a peep.
You would think one of the staff members of our side watches what 0bola does and lets our side know and our side perhaps might let the public know???
Lawsuits are imminent, if any of the people on these planes with Duncan come down with Ebola.
Proposed in 2005? That explains it. Bush’s fault. I know you could see that one coming-couldn’t you?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.