After all, precision is important.
Is Russia visible from your house? Or from your state? (OK — not her, but you get the idea).
Restrict flights for individuals returning from Ebola-stricken countries or traveling under passports issued by them to a limited number of airports equipped to deal with detection, there are five or so I understand. And, quarantine them all for three weeks. Continue doing this until the outbreak burns out.
That’s the only rational way to continue allowing flights containing people who have been in those countries. If that can’t or won’t be implemented then halt entry outright to the extent possible. Certainly no one permitted entry with passports from those countries until “all clear” due to the outbreak burning itself out.
Right now, I would just settle for someone who had the right basic idea. It is sheer insanity to not be curtailing travel from these areas. Even if there is only a 1% chance of a global epidemic (and, unfortunately, it is probably well north of that), such a scenario is so horrendous that you just cannot take that risk. So, I am definitely not as concerned with the use of a short-hand as I am with the echo chamber of people trying to downplay either the chance of this going global, or how bad it would be if it did.
I would reserve the word “morons” not for those who claim that curtailing travel would hamper our efforts to contain this disease — after all, they have their agenda to push, and there own mistakes to cover up, giving them reasons to lie, other than stupidity. I would reserve the word “morons” for those that believe them.
I hope you’re not attempting to quote Sarah Palin there as an example of someone who spoke of seeing Russia from her house without the requisite precision.