Posted on 10/11/2014 12:49:52 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Friday he remains deeply skeptical about President Obama’s ability to prevent an Ebola outbreak in the U.S., claiming that federal health officials are still underplaying the risks.
Paul said while he doesn’t want the government to incite panic over Ebola, he doesn’t believe the administration has been entirely transparent about the threat.
"I understand people in government not wanting to create panic, and I don't want to create panic, either. But I think it's also a mistake on the other side of the coin to underplay the risk of this,” Paul told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
Federal health officials have repeatedly tried to calm public fears about the disease after it was diagnosed in the U.S. on Sept. 30. The patient’s death on Wednesday renewed fears about Ebola, which had turned fatal despite treatment from a large U.S. hospital.
Obama, as well as the heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have maintained that the American healthcare system is well-equipped to prevent an outbreak.
He has also cautioned that no national strategy against Ebola can be 100 percent effective until the disease is contained in West Africa. The U.S. has committed nearly $1.5 billion to fight the disease overseas.
But Paul, who is a potential contender for the White House in 2016, argued the administration is not doing enough.
The Kentucky senator said he believes the U.S. should temporarily suspend flights from Ebola-stricken countries. Dozens of other Republican lawmakers have supported the measure, though global health organizations have warned that the move could actually worsen the crisis and put the U.S. at greater risk.
Instead, the Obama administration has added extra Ebola screenings at five U.S. airports that are highly trafficked by West African travelers.
Paul said flight suspensions would be a more effective way to reduce risk for American travelers.
“I mean, if you want to visit your son or daughter and you're coming from Liberia, couldn't you wait a couple of months?” he said.
Paul, who has a medical degree, made waves earlier this month when he accused the Obama administration of “underplaying” the threat. He warned Ebola “could get beyond our control."
The day after his comments, Paul’s father, former Sen. Ron Paul (R-Texas), warned against an "overreaction" to the disease.
Rand Paul is a day late and a dollar short.
PING!
CDC Director is RETARDED
Shut down flights FROM west Africa.
Otherwise the next suspected carrier should spend a night with the good doctor and his family in their beautiful home. Same bed.
If it spreads beyond Africa, then it is directly the fault of western leadership (I.e., Obama)
Stopping the flights only worsens the risk if you keep health-care people from flying in and out. Limit the temporary quarantine to people are just traveling, on the assumption that they are trying to get out for a reason. We can stop the travel visas, and work with the airlines to screen the passengers according to whether they are health workers or not. That would not stop the flow but it would help.
This open-borders thing is more political than it is strategic in fighting the epidemic.
Obama is doing zilch!!! The “airport” EBOLA checks he has called for are nothing but a farce, a scam to possibly calm stupid Americans down!!! It won’t. First there ar many more “international” port of entry (airports) in the USA where Obama has done absoulutely nothing!!! And....there are so many way around the “Obama” firewall...it is a big fat joke!!! Anybody ever here of flying into Toronto, Montreal or Mexico City...switching aircraft carriers and coming through Seattle, Portland or Dallas or New Orleans!!! The American people are just plain fools!!!
The CDC position makes NO sense at all !!!
They could drop supplies by parachute and let the locals take it from there. Or, those who want to could be dropped off but no one allowed out.
Why are the airlines still bringing people from there? Why are the pilots flying and the flight attendants exposing themselves to this horrible danger???
They can travel to the hot zone countries by military transport - if they are willing to go, and if anybody thinks it will still make a difference. Nobody should be coming out of the hot zone countries unless they can pass a 21 day quarantine.
Conventional health care measures have already basically failed. In my opinion, sending more people into the hot zones is unlikely to improve the situation. It is probably a suicide mission.
There is no way to screen Ebola victims that will keep them off of commercial flights. The worldwide network of airline passenger transport is just as effective a vector for spreading the Ebola as packing city residents into a crowded slum.
The only effective control for Ebola right now is to delay travel of people from the afflicted areas until the victims have all died.
Maybe if we are very lucky, the researchers will come up with an effective vaccine or serum treatment.
You only need Medev flights. Their reasons are not rational and have to be questioned!
Huge, freaking / S.
Worsens the risk? For who? Not for Americans. Are you from that region of the world? It doesn't 'worsen the risk for us' - stopping 'medical refugee' flights could save thousands of American lives. Our hospital systems are not set up for pandemics. You know that right?
What's the worst thing that could happen if flights out of African hot zones were stopped for 21 days... We'll know more then...
No one is talking about stopping medical supplies from going in ... or even flying them in. We're talking about stopping medical refugees from a hot zone from coming here and infecting American citizens.
Will this same 'anything goes' logic apply if one American city became infected to the point that one in five citizens might be carrying the virus? Would we just let everyone who can leave for other cities?
If not, why not?
Rand Paul is a day late and a dollar short.
It’s never too late to expose Obola.
Last week he was talking about the 3,000 various military from all branches of the services and many diverse units, returning together on a troop ship all at once, and how risky that would be.
What we know: Ebola has up to a 21 day incubation period.
So why would screening people after a 12 hour flight prove effective in any way?
Health care personnel can be ferried on military planes, under tight control. Why is that so hard for people to grasp?
“Obama not doing enough........( fill in any presidential duty...)”
Do? As in actual work? Sorry, that is above Obama’s pay grade.
You are right. I was thinking they had to fly commercial.
I wonder who Obola is going to blame for this when it gets out of control here?
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