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Anyone flying to the United States from Ebola-affected countries in West Africa must enter the country through one of five airports screening for the disease, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh C. Johnson said Tuesday as the Obama administration stepped up precautions to stop the spread of the virus. Last week, the government instituted temperature checks for West Africans arriving at Kennedy International in New York, Newark Liberty International, Washington Dulles International, O’Hare International in Chicago, and Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta. The five airports already account for 94 percent of all arrivals from the affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. A...

Uber.Com. AirBnB.Com. TaskRabbit.Com. What are these websites about, and why are they so controversial? Let's be clear: these websites, and others like them, are online hubs for what is best described as the emerging "freelance services industries." The service providers you find through these websites are most certainly freelancers, not established corporate business owners or employees of other peoples' companies. Uber.Com, a San Francisco-based venture that matches people who need a ride from one end of a city to another with people who have cars and are willing to travel, is perhaps the most high profile of these entities.Visit the...

“We are in a dangerous place in the world, perhaps more dangerous than in the past 10 years.” That’s what former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff had to say when he visited The Heritage Foundation recently. And with reports of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, often referred to as ISIS, all over the news, it’s not hard to see why. As Chertoff noted, terrorist groups have proliferated “from Africa east to Afghanistan.” Frightening images of beheadings and other forms of graphic violence are all too common. And news that some Americans have gone to the Middle East...

Shane Ferro October 17, 2014Multiplication — that's what people don't understand about Ebola, according to Nassim Taleb, the author of "Fooled by Randomness" and "The Black Swan." More specifically, Taleb explained to Business Insider that many people talking about the disease don't "have a grasp of the severity of the multiplicative process." The argument that the US should be more worried about a disease like cancer — which has more stable rates of infection than Ebola does currently — is a logic that Taleb calls "the empiricism of the idiots." The basic idea: The growth rate of Ebola infection is...

If federal health agencies under President Barack Obama want more money to fight Ebola, they should get it, according to the Senate’s top Republican. “I think they should have anything they want. The president asked for $88 million a few weeks ago, we gave it to him,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told MSNBC. “Whatever the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] thinks they need, we’ll give it to them.” The White House hasn’t yet requested more money, although some Democrats have blasted cuts to the CDC budget and other accounts from sequestration. MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt asked McConnell about...

Nearly every African nation has instituted travel bans on West African countries with significant Ebola outbreaks. Though the Obama administration has insisted travel bans are not necessary, even countries outside of Africa are beginning to start such travel bans, with Colombia and the Caribbean island of St. Lucia on Wednesday adding their names to a growing list of nearly 30 countries that block travelers from virus-stricken Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. African nations including Kenya, Zambia, and South Africa make up the bulk of the countries that have instituted some kind of ban, and now that countries on the other...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering adding the names of healthcare workers being monitored for the Ebola virus to the government's no-fly list, federal officials tell Fox News. The move is being considered as a response to Wednesday's disclosure that Dallas nurse Amber Joy Vinson was cleared to fly on a commercial airliner earlier this week despite having been exposed to the Ebola virus while treating Thomas Edward Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

A Northeast Ohio area teacher was on board the same plane that carried Amber Vinson, the Dallas nurse who travelled through Cleveland and was hours later diagnosed with Ebola virus. Two Solon schools announced that they will be closed on Thursday as a precaution after learning that a Solon Middle School staff member traveled home from Dallas on Frontier Airlines on Tuesday on a different flight, and an elementary teacher from Cleveland who confirmed contact with an Ebola infected person will be staying home from work until cleared by health officials to return to work. Solon sent the following email...

Reading the bio alongside Steven Bucci’s Daily Signal piece on the Ebola-inspired Liberia travel ban made me want to meet him and shake his hand. He “served America for three decades as an Army special forces officer and top Pentagon official,” now serving as director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Military Hero. Heritage. How do I not love that? Yet oddly, his piece opposing a temporary block on incoming West African travelers struck me as completely wrong, so my usual instinct kicked in— to welcome him to my radio show. His headline, “Wisdom...

Health Minister Rona Ambrose is urging Canadians in three countries in West Africa where the Ebola virus is raging to consider leaving now. The federal government issued a travel advisory Friday aimed at 216 Canadians who live in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. "Today we are asking Canadians living in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia to consider leaving by commercial means while they are still available," Ambrosa said in Edmonton Friday.

International Travel Briefing as of 10/08/2014 Ebola stricken countried restricted from: Cape Verde Cameroon Mauritius Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states – Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe – have stated that travellers coming from Ebola-affected countries (according to the World Health Organisation, WHO) would be monitored for 21 days and that travel to member countries for any gatherings would be discouraged. Namibia's Gambia Côte d'Ivoire announced on 23 August that it had closed its land borders with Guinea and Liberia. Gabon Rwanda Senegal Chad...

Several cruise lines have changed itineraries due to concerns over Ebola, canceling port stops in West Africa. On Holland America Line's 35-day African Explorer cruise aboard the MS Rotterdam, from Cape Town, South Africa, to Southampton, England, three ports of call in Ghana, Gambia and Senegal will be replaced with an added overnight in Cape Town, an added overnight in Cape Verde and a stop in Tangier, Morocco, according to Holland America spokesman Erik Elvejord....

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. has agreed to sell its most prestigious hotel, Manhattan’s Waldorf Astoria, for $1.95 billion to a Chinese insurance company, the hotel operator said Monday. The sale price is among the highest ever for any hotel and represents the latest sign of intense international demand for luxury hotels and other trophy properties in major global cities. The Waldorf Astoria’s price of $1.3 million a room is also among the highest ever paid in the U.S. on a per-room basis. The acquisition is the first major deal in the U.S. for Anbang Insurance Group Co., which beat out...

The executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons states that restricted entry to the United States will be necessary to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. “The potential for devastating loss of life is real,” wrote Dr. Jane M. Orient on the website of AAPS. “The disease must be stopped before there are millions of persons exposed instead of 100.” Orient said that restricting entry to the United States means that travelers from areas affected by Ebola must be “carefully screened and quarantined when indicated.” Additionally, she warned that to contain the spread of Ebola,...

The federal government is not considering a travel ban to the United States from Africa, thanks to a “sophisticated multi layer screening system" at airports in Africa, according to the White House. “If we can screen through the transportation system to ensure that individuals that are exhibiting symptoms don't have access to a transportation system, then you can keep the transportation system secure,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained to reporters aboard Air Force One. A travel ban would make it more difficult for professionals to reach Africa to help end the Ebola epidemic, he explained.

People who contract Ebola in West Africa can get through airport screenings and onto a plane with a lie and a lot of ibuprofen, according to healthcare experts who believe more must be done to identify infected travelers. At the very least, they said, travelers arriving from Ebola-stricken countries should be screened for fever, which is currently done on departure from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. But such safeguards are not foolproof. "The fever-screening instruments run low and aren't that accurate," said infection control specialist Sean Kaufman, president of Behavioral-Based Improvement Solutions, a biosafety company based in Atlanta. "And people...

Thomas Eric Duncan case raises questions about U.S. preparedness to stem deadly virusThe first case of Ebola diagnosed within the U.S. is prompting calls for heavy travel restrictions between the U.S. and those West African countries hardest hit by the outbreak — and one advocate is even warning against the possibility of “Ebola tourism” by patients seeking better care here. Thomas Eric Duncan, the first diagnosed case, remained in isolation in a Texas hospital Thursday after having traveled from Liberia last month, leaving health officials to try to track down up to 100 persons he may have come in contact...

Looking for Riders on Two Flights Believed to Have Carried U.S. Ebola Patient.

Purpose: To give information to airlines on stopping ill travelers from boarding, managing and reporting onboard sick travelers, protecting crew and passengers from infection, and cleaning the plane and disinfecting contaminated areas. Key Points: ** A U.S. Department of Transportation rule permits airlines to deny boarding to air travelers with serious contagious diseases that could spread during flight, including travelers with possible Ebola symptoms. This rule applies to all flights of U.S. airlines, and to direct flights (no change of planes) to or from the United States by foreign airlines. ** Cabin crew should follow routine infection control precautions for...

The White House said Wednesday it will not impose travel restrictions or introduce new airport screenings to prevent additional cases of Ebola from entering the United States. Spokesman Josh Earnest said that current anti-Ebola measures, which include screenings in West African airports and observation of passengers in the United States, will be sufficient to prevent the “wide spread” of the virus. The chances of a U.S. epidemic are “incredibly low,” he said. “The reason for that is that it is not possible to transmit Ebola through the air. ... The only way that an individual can contract Ebola is by...