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The Answer On Ebola Travel Restrictions: Ban Commercial Flights, Allow Medical and Aid Flights to Continue, Quarantine Workers
NBC News reports:
A majority of Americans support banning all flights to the United States from countries experiencing an Ebola outbreak, an exclusive NBC News online survey reveals.
A Petition to the White House requests:
the FAA ban all incoming and outgoing flights to ebola-stricken countries until the ebola outbreak is contained
The Petition currently has over 18,000 signatures.
And it is obvious that screening passengers coming from Ebola hotzone countries can't work.
But the Centers for Disease Control says that – paradoxically – banning flights would increase the spread of Ebola:
A travel ban to the countries facing an Ebola outbreak could paradoxically make the problem worse, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said during a Saturday press conference.
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Frieden said the CDC would consider any and all precautions, but warned that a travel ban could make it harder to get medical care and aid workers to regions dealing with the outbreak.
He cited the recent delay African Union aid workers experienced trying to get to Liberia.
“Their ability to get there was delayed by about a week because their flight was canceled and they were stuck in a neighboring country,” he said.
But why can't commercial flights be stopped… while medical and humanitarian flights are allowed to continue?
After all, the Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization and other governmental agencies worldwide say they are now starting to deploy enormous resources into stopping the spread of Ebola in Africa. These agencies all have private airplanes.
Those flights could continue. And the limited number of healthcare and aid workers flying to Africa to fight Ebola could all be quarantined and/or tested for Ebola before they return.
So that would give the best of all possible worlds: the spread of Ebola by way of commercial flights would stop, but the flow of aid and medical assistance to Africa would continue unabated.
Postscript: I am not a healthcare expert. If an infectious disease expert sees a flaw in the above analysis, I’m all ears.
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Only 18500 votes after more than one week. Clearly the Americans do not want to stop those flights.
Clearly many Americans know that petitions to the most corrupt governmnet of all time is meaningless. I would rather vote with my gun.
Today, this fool, lunatic, and political whore running the CDC, "Dr." Frieden, told a blue chip international panel in Washihgton that this ebola thing is unlike anything he has ever seen since AIDS.
Two weeks ago, he said there was no chance of it spreading to the US.
A week ago, he told us how hard it it to contract ebola.
The day after he said that everything in the US is under strict control, we see the now-iconic photos of janitors pressure-washing ebola barf off of the sidewalk in Dallas. Not a rubber glove in sight. For the only confirmed ebola case in the entire country.
The world's top experts seem to think quite differently than "Dr." Frieden.
This asshat needs to be fired and investigated, immediately. His outfit would reap great wealth from any ebola vaccine (think mandatory), which would have to link to his patents at the CDC. By the way, the CDC is a private outfit with a government charter, like the Fed.
"...By the way, the CDC is a private outfit with a government charter, like the Fed..."
I think you're confusing the CDC Foundation with the CDC, pupdog1. The CDC is most certainly a federal agency - it's organized under the Department of Health and Human Services, which is under the Executive branch of the government. There is no CDC board of directors. The CDC's buget is something like $8 billion a year.
The CDC Foundation is different - it's a non-profit corp set up to fund public health care programs related to the CDC's work. It has a board of directors like all non-profits. It gets about a third of its funding from the government, the rest are charitable donations. Budget of maybe $50M/yr - a drop in the bucket compared to CDC.
"Today, this fool, lunatic, and political whore running the CDC, "Dr." Frieden,..."
In defence of the good doctor... he is neither a fool nor a lunatic.
The problem with ebola is that it mutates like few other viruses researchers have seen. The longer the outbreak lasts and the more victims it infects the greater the chance that it will become a lethally effective airborne superbug.
The odds are good this will happen in Africa first due to the sheer number of cases there. If air travel remains open if and when that mutation begins to spread the entire planet will be in an ebola infected pickle......
Political Whore????
The good doctor looks us straight in the eye and tells us how hard it is to contract ebola. Yet, the entire infectious disease community worldwide classifies ebola to be a "level-four" biohazard--that's before any talk of mutation. There are five levels on this scale. There are, they say, only 19 level-four beds in th entire country.
I'd say the good doctor is full of shit, and he is saying what he is being told to say.
Those mutations which enhance survival are favored. Thus, a mutation to a less lethal form is more likely. More lethality ensures its extinction as it needs a host to survive lone enough to pass it along like all retroviruses. The RNA replication process is more prone to transcription error certainly. But, consider the most effective virus of all, the common cold, an RNA virus, is much older than any lethal form and it certainly the fittest by survival criteria and also the least lethal. These rhinovirusus with low lethality are not an accident but follows the rules of all genetic evolution.
"the CDC is a private outfit with a government charter, like the Fed."
Would be greatful for links ...
I'll admit they hide this well, especially on their website.
For starters, Bloomberg lists them in their "company overview" database. And I never heard of a branch of the federal government with a Board of Directors:
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?p...
Nice catch dog. I see the head hanchos are also of the tribe. Fucking bastards.
From anecdotal, I picked up that the WHO is private.
The CDC? Dunno.
Fucking Gartman is on CNBC now saying Ebola is not a big threat.....
what a cunt
Bad sign...
Batten down the hatches. Things are going to get bad. The contrary indicator has spoken.
Ebama was born in Africa. Send it back!
Thas Ray Cyst.
Its because they are Black isn't it? Just admit it.
I think all commerical flights leaving a country that is experiencing an outbreak should be banned. This includes the good ol U.S.A.
I'm with you, Farside. We be a country of origin, now. By definition.
George... the answer to your "question" is that it's too logical, simple and doesn't further a longer term objective of apparently infecting a whole lotta people. I only say that because what is in practice or proposed at this time, is simply negligent and will result in further deaths... meaning it's murder.
Murder.
Ain't no accident and doesn't take a genius to figure the shit out.
We prefer to call it the Shrinkage Law of the Over Population Provision of the Patriot Act (SLOPPPA)
Don't make .gov get all SLOPPPA on your ass, Knukles - you wouldn't like it.