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.
NIH and CDH liberal hacks are two Liberians away from caving. Two Liberians who come here with Ebola and start spreading it like that Duncan idiot
Common sense? Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any in Washington.
It may be up to us. We may have to storm the WH and/or the Capitol to get the right thing done. I think if there are more deaths in the US, there will be more than a few people with pitchforks ready.
It’s sad to see more rationale in african countries governments that closed their borders and succesfully keeping eobala from crossing their borders and our afrikan government with prez obolas ‘let em all in’ stance. I guess not all afrikan leaders have the same IQ, our obola falls somewhere between mugabe and charles taylor.
A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread
These planes are bring loaded from all over the world with underaged minors and future Dem voters !
Its been going on quietly for years !
A posters wife saw it first hand in Newark three weeks ago !
“Hey Obama, be a MAN - Implement a travel BAN!”
On the bright side, letting 100,000 Haitians in without visas should help the Democrat voter pool greatly. At least (so far) none of them has been reported sick with Ebola.
See here:
S/West govs in crucial meeting over Ebola GOVERNORS in South-West states, on Wednesday, met in Lagos, to hold an emergency meeting over concerted efforts to be deployed in containing the Ebola virus disease in the states.The posting date was in August. Hmmm...This came as the Lagos State government confirmed the death of one of the nurses who had first degree contact with the dead Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, who died of Ebola virus disease in Lagos.
Speaking through the Lagos State governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola, at the Government House, Alausa, Lagos, the governors told newsmen that cross-border movements were major constraints in combating Ebola, while appealing to the Federal Government to deploy manpower and resources to curtail the spread.
Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun lamented that despite 58 Hilux vans patrolling the over 70 illegal borders between Lagos and Ogun, there was still the need for the Federal Government to assist with more vehicles and security forces.
Since Nigeria is controlling the spread, their tactics seem diametrically opposed to the arguments we're being handed.
My response:
What ARE you shoveling???
Up is down.
Does anyone really believe that these people are being tracked? Does anyone believe that the government tracks immigrants effectively?
If they can, how come we have so many people overstaying their visas? Close all the borders. Now, or worse is coming.
Has anyone been reading about all the dangerous diseases going around the South American countries lately? Another big surge from our Southern Border, and our kids will be sick with even more horrific diseases.
Too bad the media hasn’t covered the EV-D68 with the same energy as they have Ebola.
True Quarantines work. It’s past time to close the borders.
Thanks for the ping!
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