The Obama administration has imposed what looks like a compromise between the people demanding a prohibition on all travel to the US from West Africa and the medical community who are saying that such a ban would be counter productive.
US imposes Ebola travel restrictions on passengers from west Africa New guidelines will force travellers from affected countries to fly via US airports with screening procedures in place
The Obama administration has announced America’s first Ebola-related travel restrictions, forcing passengers originating from affected countries in west Africa to fly via US airports with screening procedures in place.
The limited move comes after days of mounting political pressure to introduce outright travel bans on such passengers entering the US, but will instead make sure all recent travellers to Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea are subject to basic tests for fever and face questioning on possible exposure to the disease.
“We are continually evaluating whether additional restrictions or added screening and precautionary measures are necessary to protect the American people and will act accordingly,” added Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson in a statement.
Five US airports – New York’s JFK, Newark, Dulles, Atlanta and Chicago – now have the additional Ebola screening protocols in place, which are designed to supplement exit screenings that take place in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea,
The restrictions are aimed at all people whose travel has originated in the nations in the grip of the epidemic. That would seem to include people traveling on passports from any country. This would have to be coordinated by the airlines. It sounds somewhat like the arrangements for blocking travel by people on the no fly list.
Nobody can know until some point in the future whether the US will be able to avoid more ebola cases. At this point we have 2 active cases. Most of the people in Texas who have come into direct physical contact with an ebola patient are now clearing the quarantine period. The immediate problem is more about calming public hysteria than providing medical treatment.