Posted on 10/25/2014 5:12:21 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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? Theyre a moving target, and theyve morphed a bit just in the last few days. Initially they were a call to ban flights from the affected countriesSierra Leone, Liberia and Guineainto the United States, in order to reduce the possibility that another person silently incubating the Ebola virus would show up in our cities. This is how Ebola entered Texas, via Thomas Eric Duncan, who had been exposed to the virus in Liberia before entering the United States to visit family. Visa restrictions have also been discussed. Would these bans make us safer?
Lets take each potential model in turn:
1) Stopping flights to the affected countries Shutting down flights from these countries sounds straightforward. Unfortunately, what many proponents of such a flight ban didnt realize was that there actually arent any direct flights from any of those countries into the United States. Nate Silver searched and identified direct flights from Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria, but none from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea.
Most flights from the affected countries instead route through Europe or the Middle East, but even for those, Silver found, In total, this represents just 18 weekly flights from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone combined, nine of which are currently suspended or are not yet operating.
Duncan was routed through Europe, flying out of Monrovia, the Liberian capital, to Brussels, Belgium, then on to Washington-Dulles Airport and finally to Dallas-Fort Worth.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
At present trajectory, CDC estimates that the number infected by January will be 1.5 million. That is not a few.
Thank you for your continued spamming of these Obola threads currentDUmom. As if none of us know the definition of quarantine. If you can GOOGLE maybe you could look up Websters and learn. While you are at it make sure to add my name to Obolas Truth list.
When someone visits a country, they stamp your passport. If an American visits an Ebola country, it will be on their passport.
Tara Smith has stopped ebola before. She knows.
Source?
Where were their passports from, then?
Despite her impressive credentials, Dr. Smith is wrong. Banning travel is an effective common sense measure when part of an array of measures. Those measures have been known and refined for centuries.
So how is it that Dr. Smith, a respected epidemiologist, repudiates a valid public health tool? From her article a telling word emerges in this phrase; "...and unfairly ensnare anyone from the affected countries..."
The concept of "fair" has no place in public health. It is only legitimate in organized sporting events. Outside of that the concept of fairness is abused by children and liberals.
Adults deal with right and wrong. And it is right for a country to protect its public health. It is right to do so with travel bans.
Time for Dr. Smith to look outside of her ivory tower into the real world.
Exactly. Because Obama is all about politics, he makes everything a binary choice in terms of good/bad outcomes for him.
He’s got CDC types and the flaming idiot author of this article doing the same.
Exactly. Because Obama is all about politics, he makes everything a binary choice in terms of good/bad outcomes for him.
He’s got CDC types and the flaming idiot author of this article doing the same.
Any country that allows flights out of those countries is also run be crazy people, by the way.
You don't fight this thing with one tool. You use them all.
Three are Americans: the first two cases of the doctor and the nurse they flew in from Africa for treatment and now the doctor in New York. And then there was a news cameraman they brought back for treatment. I don’t remember where he was from but he wasn’t from the U.S. or Africa. The only one who came in on an African passport was the only one who died.
It’s why the term ‘leper colony’ has been around for centuries. It worked.
But can you tell that to self-regarding technocrats?
You fight an epidemic by ISOLATING IT to the best of your ability AND fighting it where it IS.
ANYTHING LESS is INSANITY.
Doesn’t matter. Even if a passport isn’t from the countries in question, they are stamped if they’ve been there.
There’s no way that custom officials did not know that all of those folks had been in the hot zone.
Therefore there is no excuse.
A legal traveler visiting Sierra Leone would have a visa & entry/exit stamps on their passport no matter where they came from.
passport is simply shorthand for a review of that document for if, where, and when it had been stamped by an infected country.
In view of the potential pandemic and incubation period it is only reasonable to take any and all steps to limit the risk to our own citizens.
Which brings me to the current reports of a medical worker whining about being isolated by NJ upon return from W. Africa: seems she feels all righteous about tending to ignorant tribes elsewhere but has no concern for her own countrymen. (No, "tribe" isn't racist and "countrymen" isn't sexist. "Savages" would apply but invite misrepresentation and "countrypersons" sounds dumb.)
I read that Nigeria stopped an outbreak of Ebola. How did they do it?
The purpose of a travel ban is not absolute security, but to significantly reduce the threat. If people from these nations have a profound need to come to the US, as a minimum they must be willing to stay in a quarantine area for an entire month.
This is similar to the way things have been done for hundreds of years now. We regularly do it for animals, and while it is a hassle, it is far better than epidemic.
Opening the borders and letting the infected run all over Lagos. Duh.
Try taking a vacation to Israel with a US passport, then flying from there on to Saudi Arabia.
Visas and Entry/Exit stamps matter, too.
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