My congressman (Adrian Smith, NE-3) sent an E-mail the other day about a number of subjects. One of them was that along with twenty-five other members of Congress, he signed on to a letter to President Obama urging travel restrictions and quarantines for everyone that comes from a nation with Ebola cases.
More below the orange virus of fear, below.
Quoting from Mr. Smith's E-mail:
The rate at which the Ebola virus has spread throughout West Africa is alarming. So far the administration's response has been to deploy troops to the region, but leave our borders unprotected from the disease except for minimal airport screening. For this reason I joined 25 of my colleagues on October 8th in sending a bipartisan letter to President Obama urging him to institute travel restrictions, enhance airport screening, and to consider quarantining individuals who have recently traveled to or from the West African countries most affected by this epidemic.
Many Nebraskans have reached out to me to express their support for a travel ban. I agree for the time being it is not appropriate for our government to issue tourist visas to individuals from nations being ravaged by Ebola. Even several African countries have successfully implemented travel bans. This is a commonsense measure to reduce the risk of more individuals bringing the virus into our country.
However, the Obama Administration continues to issue approximately 100 tourist visas per day to individuals from affected nations to visit the United States, saying to do otherwise would hurt efforts to fight the virus at the source. However, I have yet to hear a compelling argument as to why allowing foreign nationals from these nations to visit the United States would have any effect on our ability to fight Ebola in Africa.
So I sent a response this evening, considering he "hasn't heard any compelling arguments."
----- ----- -----
I would note that the only person who has died from Ebola here in the United States was the one who was turned away from a for-profit hospital after it was found he had no insurance.
That by itself should be a powerful argument for single-payer health care insurance, or socialized medicine. I am glad to see that your position has evolved in a progressive direction. As you are fully aware, no for-profit healthcare system will ever work for anything other than any other for-profit organization: profit.
On the issue of quarantine: once a person arrives on our shores, they are already here. Any quarantine that would be effective would require quarantining everyone who arrived with that person, as well as customs officials and border security that person contacted.
So is it your position that the Federal government should pay to quarantine everyone? Or, is it your position that Congress should base its decisions on information provided by those who have spent their lives studying the problem of Ebola (science rather than fear-mongering)?
Note also it is not hoards of unwashed poor masses that would fly to the United States, it would be those who can afford it (the wealthy).
Tens of thousands die every year in the United States from influenza, from gun violence, from automobile accidents. One person who did not contract Ebola here died here. All others have recovered. Where is your outrage over the flu, guns, or cars?
I expect better from my Congressman than fear-mongering. I expect him to make informed decisions based on the best knowledge that can be produced by scientists, researchers, and medical experts. You are none of those.