I think the motivation is pretty clear, almost transparently so.
On August 16, 2014, the CDC sent out a health alert message that contained the following language:
NEW Stigma Key Messages
West Africans in the United States and elsewhere may face stigmatization (stigma) during the current Ebola outbreak because the outbreak is associated with a region of the world.
Stigma involves stereotyping and discriminating against an identifiable group of people, a product, an animal, a place, or a nation.
Stigma can occur when people associate an infectious disease, such as Ebola, with a population, even though not everyone in that population or from that region is specifically at risk for the disease (for example, West Africans living in the United States).
Stigma occurred among Asian Americans in the United States during the SARS pandemic in 2003.
Communicators and public health officials can help counter stigma during the Ebola response.
Communicate early the risk or lack of risk from associations with products, people, and places.
Raise awareness of the potential problem.
Counter stigmatization with accurate risk information about how the virus spreads.
Speak out against negative behaviors.
Be cautious about the images that are shared. Make sure they do not reinforce stereotypes.
Model good behaviors; engage with stigmatized groups in person and through social media.
In April 2003, when SARS was spreading in North America and 166 suspect cases were under investigation in the US, Julie Gerberding, Bush's CDC chief, said the following:
"There are some very specific issues that are of concern to CDC right now. One is that we are hearing reports, internationally, about some stigmatization that's occurring among people in the Asian community.
It's very important that people appreciate that this is a respiratory illness caused by a virus, probably a new virus, and is a disease that is an infection of great medical consequence but it is not a disease that is in any way related to being Asian or to the fact that Asia happened to be the place where we first recognized cases.
So we want to ask people's support and help in appreciating how difficult this is for the affected people and how we really need to take the high road here and recognize that this is a time when all of our communities need support and empathy, not stigma or bias or shunning that has been reported in some international press.
In part to address that, CDC has established a community outreach team and we are working with various communities, in particular the Asian community, to understand what are the issues, what are the best ways of providing information to the community and languages, and formats that are accessible to the individuals who are concerned or affected by this problem, and we will be continuing to work aggressively to provide factual information and hopefully reduce some of the stigma that could evolve."
So, consistently over 11 years (actually much longer), a major concern of the premier disease control entity on the planet has been avoiding discrimination.
Isn't that interesting. We're discussing the intentional deception involved in transmission vector communication, yet the authorities have abandoned their own advice.
The notion of stigma during disease outbreaks as a bad thing is ridiculous. Of course people are going to take known facts (the virus is widespread in three specific countries, emerging in another, and all those countries' populations are the same demographic) and use those facts to protect themselves. It's called rational thought.
It's true that populations of Liberian/Guinean/Sierra Leon expats residing in the US are not likely to have the virus in their populations yet but after the Patrick Sawyer episode it's obvious those expat populations are at great risk of having the virus introduced via the Sawyer plan. Hence some caution when dealing with those populations are warranted. It goes without saying that the populations of Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leon and to a lesser degree Nigeria warrant extreme stigma at this point.
So, consistently over 11 years (actually much longer), a major concern of the premier disease control entity on the planet has been avoiding discrimination.
Why am I not surprised. Little wonder the CDC and WHO have been wholly ineffective over the last months. Standard epidemiological actions have been pushed aside in favor of politically correct nonsense.
The complaints by WHO and CDC over airlines ceasing service to infectious areas strikes me as irrational. Maintaining control over populations both currently infected and extremely susceptible to infection is step one to control an outbreak of infectious disease, especially viral disease. Allowing asymptomatic infected people to fly around the world gives the pathogen an unnatural advantage and guarantees a much greater body count while hindering control efforts.
The UN and WHO take in billions of dollars a year. Can they not rent a dozen C130s to move materials and medical personnel into the area while forbidding unauthorized people from return flights? For that matter, why don't they have their own planes, helicopters, etc. to move material and personnel?
I am absolutely against the US military being used for anything other than, perhaps, flights into and out of the infected areas with total authority to deny anyone access to the planes to prevent infected and potentially infected people trying to leave by hiding in the planes.There is no reason to expose US military personnel to this virus, and the statements that MSF et al don't want the military to use standard crowd control procedures tells me that MSF has no concern for the health of our people.