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Ed mentioned earlier today that Canada will be joining the group of nations instituting travel bans and/or quarantines from Ebola afflicted nations, while the United States will stick with the airport screening route. But don’t worry… I’m sure that will work out just fine. These scientific studies show that airport Ebola screenings are largely ineffectiveThose travelers now have to submit to temperature checks and questioning. But scientific studies published by the National Institutes of Health have shown that similar protocols were largely ineffective during an outbreak of Swine Flu in 2009, as Government Executive pointed out in an article last...

As alarm mounts over the spread of Ebola, many are concerned that screening travelers who arrive in the United States from West Africa is not sufficiently protective because it will not identify those who carry the virus but are not yet symptomatic. Yet over the past two weeks, the Obama administration and supportive experts saturated the media with the argument that any comprehensive travel restrictions aimed at Ebola-infested regions would be pointless and even counterproductive. No doubt the experts who reject travel bans understand disease and epidemiology. But their arguments demonstrate less understanding of how we manage risk in the...

The biggest two words right now at the intersection of government and public health might be “travel ban.” But despite many politicians framing such a ban as a “common sense measure” to protect us from Ebola, a closer look at both the logistics and the history of such bans show that they are anything but. First, what are these “travel bans” all about? They’re a moving target, and they’ve morphed a bit just in the last few days. Initially they were a call to ban flights from the affected countries—Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea—into the United States, in order to...

The governors of New York and New Jersey announced Friday afternoon that they were ordering all people entering the country through two area airports who had direct contact with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to be quarantined. The announcement comes one day after an American doctor, who had worked in Guinea and returned to New York City earlier in October, tested positive for Ebola and became the first New York patient of the deadly virus. “A voluntary Ebola quarantine is not enough,” said Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York. “This is too serious a public health...

Dr. Craig Spencer returned from Guinea on Oct. 17 The CDC's 'enhanced screening' protocols didn't flag him as a disease carrier because he had no Ebola symptoms 'He went through multiple layers of screening and did not have a fever or other symptoms of illness,' the CDC tweeted He spiked a 100.3-degree fever six days later and landed in New York City's Bellevue Hospital Critics are slamming the CDC and the Obama administration for letting west African travelers into the country while requiring airport screening that can't identify patients Craig Spencer, the doctor whose confirmed Ebola diagnosis sent New York...

A plane from Washington D.C.'S Dulles International Airport has been grounded at Columbia Metropolitan Airport due to a sick passenger on board, according a spokesperson for the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. The passenger had a reported nosebleed, and the plane was being held on the ramp Friday morning, according to airport spokeswoman Kaela Harmon. A nosebleed is a symptom of advanced Ebola, a deadly virus that has killed nearly 5,000 worldwide, including one victim in the United States. Caution is high because of recent outbreaks of the disease in Dallas, and a confirmed case of the virus in New York announced...

Relax, North Korea has given us something new to speculate about By Anna Fifield October 23  Conspiracy theorists disappointed with the reappearance of Kim Jong Un earlier this month can breathe a sigh of relief. North Korea has provided new fodder for unchecked speculation, wild rumors and frenzied tea-leaf reading. Citing fears about the spread of Ebola, the world’s most closed state abruptly told Western travel agencies Thursday that it would not allow foreign tourists to enter, starting on Friday. Never mind that it’s 8,261 miles from Monrovia to Pyongyang. Never mind that North Korea is hardly a major...

Coumo and Warren Wilhelm Press Conference

A doctor who recently returned from West Africa, where he was on an Ebola assignment for Doctors Without Borders, has tested positive for Ebola at Bellevue Hospital Center after reporting a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms, a source familiar with the results tells NBC 4 New York.

A Harlem doctor who recently treated patients in Africa, tested positive for the deadly disease after he was rushed to Bellevue Hospital with symptoms, including a 103-degree fever, sources told The Post. [snip] Spencer had spent Wednesday night bowling in Williamsburg. He used an Uber car service to get to and from the Brooklyn neighborhood. Hipster bowling hot spot The Gutter was closed last night due to “unforseen circumstances.”[snip]

A doctor who recently traveled from West Africa has tested positive for the Ebola virus at Bellevue Hospital. BREAKING NEWS - INFORMATION BELOW WILL BE UPDATED SHORTLY Sources have identified the patient as Dr. Craig Allen Spencer, 33, who was working with Doctors Without Borders and recently returned from overseas. He was transported through the city's EMS system and was tested for possible Ebola-like symptoms. He tested positive Thursday night. He is an American citizen, and sources say he arrived on Brussels Airlines Flight 501 from Brussels to JFK Airport on October 17. His flight history originated in Guinea. Spencer...

A doctor in New York City who recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea tested positive for the Ebola virus Thursday, becoming the city’s first diagnosed case. The doctor, Craig Spencer, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital on Thursday and placed in isolation while health care workers spread out across the city to trace anyone he might have come into contact with in recent days. A further test will be conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control to confirm the initial test. While officials have said they expected isolated cases of the disease to arrive in New York eventually,...

A doctor in New York City who recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea tested positive for the Ebola virus Thursday, becoming the city’s first diagnosed case. The doctor, Craig Spencer, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital on Thursday and placed in isolation while health care workers spread out across the city to trace anyone he might have come into contact with in recent days. A further test will be conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control to confirm the initial test.

The CDC and the Obama administration has finally decided to put in place some safeguards on travelers from western Africa, although they still fall short of the travel ban backed by most Americans. On Monday, Allahpundit noted that the White House has now directed the FAA and airlines to route all travelers from Ebola-impacted nations to five airports, which isn’t all that much of a change from what usually takes place anyway. The CDC followed suit today by ordering 21-day monitoring for all of those travelers, whether they pass a temperature screen or not: The new measures, to be...

A Liberian passenger who flew into New Jersey on Tuesday was taken to hospital over fears he had been exposed to Ebola, media reported. The man, who had flown from Liberia to Brussels and then caught a connecting flight to Newark, had a fever, NBC New York reported, citing unnamed officials. The passenger was "identified as reporting symptoms or having a potential exposure to Ebola," a spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told the network. The CDC was not immediately available for comment. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are at the epicenter of the world's...

Four passengers who flew into Dulles International Airport recently were taken to a local hospital after enhanced airport screening alarmed the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday.

Just when you thought it was safe to BTF-Ebola-Is-Fixed-Dip... ABC7 Chicago reports, two unrelated passengers (one child - vomiting, no fever; one adult - nausea, diarrhea, no fever) originating from Liberia became ill en route to O'Hare International Airport. The two patients are being monitored in isolation at The University of Chicago Medical Center and Rush University Medical Center but based on the latest reports and risk exposures (from the Chicago Ebola Resource Network), the CDC has determined not to test them for Ebola... (perhaps they are waiting for Ron Klain to start work tomorrow to give them the go-ahead)....

Harvard University has imposed an effective travel ban on Ebola-striken countries, requiring students, faculty, and staff to obtain official permission from the university administration before traveling to affected parts of West Africa, and possibly staying off campus for 21 days after returning to the U.S. from those countries. The severe restrictions at Harvard, reported early Monday by the Harvard Crimson, "expand on those detailed in August that asked for Harvard students, faculty, and staff to avoid nonessential travel to the three countries." The new restrictions also exceed any guidelines imposed by the U.S. government. The new policy comes in the...

Congressman Peter King (R-NY) is outraged after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials dismissed Ebola after a "cursory" exam of an African man, who died on a plane to JFK Airport Thursday in a fit of vomiting. The unnamed 63-year-old had boarded an Arik Air plane out of Lagos, Nigeria the night before, a federal law enforcement source told the New York Post. While in the air, the man vomited in his seat repeatedly, and before landing in New York he died on the plane. The 145 frightened passengers were kept on board as CDC officials and police...

Senators on both sides of the political aisle are calling for travel restrictions on West African countries as government officials in the U.S. fail to quell concerns about the threat free travel poses to the health and safety of Americans. Democrat Senators Kay Hagan and Bill Nelson have called for temporary travel restrictions and today, Republican Senators Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Mike Lee, Jeff Sessions, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn sent a letter directly to President Obama demanding the administration stop issuing visas to people currently living in Ebola stricken countries. Here is the text of the letter in it's entirety: Dear...