Posted on 10/19/2014 7:56:45 AM PDT by maggief
A top official at the National Institutes of Health on Sunday said a travel ban on flights to and from West Africa would only make things worse in the fight against Ebola, pushing back against calls from lawmakers to institute one.
“The fact is it would be very, very difficult if we lost control of easily tracking people,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN’s “State of the Union."
Fauci said roughly 36,000 people tried to get on flights out of one of the three West African countries hit hardest by Ebola during August and September. Seventy seven were blocked because of a "health issue." "When they investigated them, none of them had Ebola, a lot of them had malaria," Fauci said of the 77 that were stopped.
“So there is not a lot of people trying to get into the country,” Fauci said.
When asked if health officials where telling the administration what they wanted to hear concerning the travel ban, Fauci said "no."
“I’ve never had a case where a president is telling me to tell him something,” Fauci said. “They just ask what your opinion is.”
Fauci stressed that the disease, which so far has killed roughly 4,500 people in West Africa, is only transmitted when a person is showing symptoms.
“If a person doesn’t have any symptoms, they are not capable of transmitting it,” he said. Fauci is helping oversee the treatment of one of the nurses who contracted the disease from Thomas Duncan, the first Ebola patient in the U.S.
He said that Nina Pham, who is currently being treated in Bethesda, Maryland, is doing “fair, very stable and comfortable,” on “Fox News Sunday.”
Later on ABC’s “This Week,” Fauci added that he wouldn’t say Pham is out of the woods just yet.
“I feel strongly that she is going to do well, but you never say never until I walk out of the hospital with her,” Fauci said.
When asked if he was confident U.S. hospitals would be able to handle a possible outbreak, Fauci said not every hospital is meant to be able to handle a serious illness like Ebola.
“I think this idea that every single hospital can take care of a seriously ill Ebola patient is just not true,” Fauci said, adding that the strategy is to train all workers to know how to diagnose, contain and then transport an Ebola patient to a facility that can treat them.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will issue new guidelines soon for health workers on Ebola, Fauci said.
The new protocol will make sure that healthcare workers are now “completely covered with no skin showing whatsoever,” he said.
The CDC and administration were scrutinized after a series of missteps led to the disease spreading to two nurses, who treated Duncan, and where then allowed to travel.
The outbreak has become a political issue, with lawmakers accusing the administration of mismanaging its response and being too slow to the crisis.
In a move to gain control of the situation, President Obama named an Ebola czar, Ron Klain, on Friday. Republicans slammed the president over the pick, arguing Klain has no public health experience.
Fauci shot back at those accusations on Sunday, calling it “misplaced criticism.”
“We are talking about an Ebola response coordinator,” Fauci said. “Someone who has lots of managerial experience…we are talking about one designated person who is an excellent manager.”
Fauci said that he has already started exchanging emails with Klain and will meet with him next week.
Ping.
Moron....
No, not moron. Evil.
Thomas Duncan traveled to the US. Thomas Duncan brought Ebola to the US. The source of Ebola in the US is a result of travel.
Fauci shot back at those accusations on Sunday, calling it “misplaced criticism.”
“We are talking about an Ebola response coordinator,” Fauci said. “Someone who has lots of managerial experience…we are talking about one designated person who is an excellent manager.”
Fauci said that he has already started exchanging emails with Klain and will meet with him next week.
+++++++++++++
Did Klain email him those talking points?
At least one of them had ebola - and that is all it takes.
Travel Ban now!
All flights from Africa need to stop in DC
Nobody wants to be the one dying from Ebola.
Nobody wants to be the one with the piece of crap parachute.
Both lead to a quick death
I refs recently can’t remember that NIH was is one of the more corrupt of our corrupt govt institutions
Regardless, congress had better get in there and shit this bio war down or they’ll have history to answer to
NIH bah
Where’s congress. Ijits
Exactly. Knows the asymptomatic carriers will infiltrate the US and kill Americans. Refuses to acknowledge that a simple solution will prevent that and most other African countries and several European countries have already implemented it.
Oh well, he will be overruled by common sense sooner or later, hopefully not much later.
Whoopsie. Of course I meant shut this down
We must put hatred of America first above all considerations if we are liberals. It is our duty to do so.
Spewing exactly as instructed by Klain.
There is no need to track them if you don't let them into the country in the first place. That is easily done by denying anyone with a visa issued in any of the banned countries or anyone that boarded a flight in those countries - all easily done by looking at their passport
If we let them in on airplanes, we can track them. Otherwise, they will fly into Mexico and walk across the Southern border without any tracking.
The obvious solution of controlling all borders is unthinkable.
I thought that Fauci was a scientist, but now he just a feckless stooge pimping for Satan’s man.
Thee people will do and say anything to not geographically contain the disease. Look at the new TB and virus cases brought over the border by kids from central america.
No uproar no action by the congress, no one cares except a few of us.
If all quarantine and cases were in DC someone in the congress might wake up.
Just to be safe, all flights from West Africa need to stop in DC and their passengers stay there for several nights before continuing on.
If it is good enough for flyover country, it is good enough for DC.
So Fauci is every bit as evil as Frieden and Obama.
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