U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) correctly shot down the notion of a Republican-backed travel ban.
“Those like Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) have suggested instituting a travel ban to and from West Africa. This idea may seem like a quick fix but in reality, isolating West Africa will only exacerbate the epidemic in the region,” Moore said in a statement. “Aside from being impractical, this reactionary strategy will force Ebola patients underground making it nearly impossible to track their movements, hinder the capacity for international healthcare workers to transport and administer critical aid, and erode the continent’s fragile economy.” “If Senator Johnson and his colleagues are looking for a silver bullet to address Ebola,” Moore added, “they will be sorely disappointed to learn that such a thing doesn’t exist.”
Meanwhile, Obama says he’ll also reach out directly to heads of state to encourage other countries to do more to fight Ebola. More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola this year in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. And there could be 10,000 new Ebola cases per week in the three countries by the end of this year as the outbreak spreads, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday.
“As soon as someone is diagnosed with Ebola, we want a rapid response team, a SWAT team, essentially, from the CDC, to be on the ground as quickly as possible, hopefully within 24 hours, so they are taking the local hospital step by step through exactly what needs to be done,” Obama said after meeting with top health officials at the White House. And Obama also delivered a sobering warning to world leaders.
“I am absolutely confident that we can prevent a serious outbreak of the disease in the United States,” Obama said. “But it becomes more difficult to do so if this epidemic of Ebola rages out of control in West Africa. If it does, then it will spread globally in an age of frequent travel and the kind of constant interactions that people have across borders. There are a number of countries that have capacity that have not yet stepped up,” he said. “Those that have stepped up, all of us, are going to have to do more.”
But, in the meantime, Republican fear tactics may be working. A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows the vast majority of Americans want travel entry restrictions put into place. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they are concerned about an Ebola outbreak in the United States.
Make no mistake, I’m deeply concerned about the spread of Ebola, too, but here’s the bottom line: Obama is no more responsible for the spread of Ebola than he is for the acceleration of global warming. Just how many worldwide catastrophes can be blamed on one Black president?
What do you think?
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Blame It On A Brother: Ebola Concerns More Political Than Practical was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
