Posted on 10/05/2014 12:35:19 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
I never thought I’d find myself agreeing with Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. But this week, Governor Jindal called for a ban on air travel to the U.S. from the countries where the epidemic is present. He’s right: a flight ban is the best way to keep Ebola from spreading.
In the world of infectious diseases, we often hear the phrase that the next epidemic is “one flight away” from the U.S. That’s true—but we don’t usually know where that flight will originate, so we can’t simply ban all flights to the U.S. from everywhere. With Ebola, though, we know the source: the epidemic is confined to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.
As the Ebola crisis has grown in West Africa, the need to stop its spread has grown ever more urgent. The number of cases is now over 20,000, and the CDC estimates that by January, Liberia and Sierra Leone will have 1.4 million people with Ebola infections. These are frightening numbers.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Well, the officials assured us Ebola would never come here.
Then they assured us if it did they could handle it.
They have assured us there is nothing to worry about...
Three at bats, and their average hasn’t improved...but why would anyone doubt them?
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LOL. Right on. Excellent retort.
Yep....the airlines need to simply refuse to board nationals from the hot spots and not issue any visas either.
So easy. So easy. And that is why many of us are so angry.
Lock down those countries like our ‘authorities’ lock down our schools here in similar manner to US prisons. If it is good enough for us, why not them?
“The risk management makes sense, but I wonder if anyone is alert to the fact that many experts say we aren’t dealing with Ebola?”
Explain what you mean with a source...
I am impressed that you have seen that bigger picture so starkly, well said. (No sarcasm here, it’s a compliment, since we seem to live in a world where sarcasm is the default mode)
A black teller at wallmart...was wearing gloves...I asked her why?...she said her family in africa told her to...not handle money....at all...
Thats good enough for me....Its not that hard to go cashless......Its not that hard to clean hands after touching public things....Thats what Im going to do.
I dont think gloves are a good answer though...because...eventually I would rub my eyes or something...
Oh well
Finally, somebody gets it. But ultimately it would be the privately owned airlines agreeing to do this themselves-- in the US the FAA could do this, but that is not the case in every country. Can the airlines stay in business if they are pressured into dumping all these routes? What about cargo flights-- knowing that people will be trying to sneak out that way given the corruption there? If you block that you start new problems. More importantly, what happens when the people who can't fly out then begin leaving by the only means left to them-- by foot, boat and car-- to infect neighboring countries not currently affected and spreading the epidemic? Then begin flying out from those countries? Do we then ask the airlines to stop flying there too?
It only makes sense to thoroughly check Boarding records & passport stamps on all International flights into the U.S. for any stops in the Ebola-stricken countries within the last month (or more).
It also makes absolutely no sense to overly restrict departing flights to the affected countries – that’s not the direction that’s a concern. No reasonable person is proposing that we withhold humanitarian aid from these people...
All flights from the 4 worst hit countries should already have been suspended and nobody from those countries allowed in for any reason until further notice.
Here’s what I posted on another thread, about my contacting United over this....
I contacted United and asked if they were going to stop flights to/from these Ebola affected African countries.
The agent was extremely rude and said “let me see what our restrictions are, at this time”. He proceeded to shuffle through papers and mumbled something about “no, only restrictions, or warnings, we currently have are in Cabo (Mexico) and, blah...blah”.
I asked, again, if there was a policy regarding Ebola, specifically...and why they weren’t stopping these flights. He said that “the government won’t allow them to stop these flights” and that their “policy” was to refer anyone with additional questions to the CDC.
I cancelled our upcoming United flights.
Airlines need to do this if the CDC won't....
Add the Congo to the Ban List. They may be in East Africa, but they currently have Marburg, and it’s worse than Ebola.
Has anyone other than bobby jindal called for a ban on ebola flights, cause I haven’t heard it.
WHERE THE HELL ARE THE REPUBLICANS?
CDC Director Frieden also revealed yesterday that in the month of September, screening at airports in African countries has turned away 77 people who had signs of possible Ebola infection, including 17 in the month of September. Although Frieden used this example to illustrate the effectiveness of CDC’s screening program, it also shows that sick people are trying to board planes to the U.S. As the outbreak grows, it will grow increasingly difficult to keep all Ebola-infected passengers—who don’t show signs of infection for several days—off those planes.
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