The White House argued Friday that banning commercial flights from West Africa to the U.S. would deter efforts to limit the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, insisting that Americans should not fear travelers from nations most affected by the epidemic.
“Right now, we believe those types of steps actually impede the response,” said Lisa Monaco, the White House’s homeland security adviser, in a briefing with reporters.
Critics are increasingly calling on the White House to prohibit flights from West Africa to the United States or at least allow just essential personnel to make such a trek.
Monaco and other senior administration officials claimed Friday that it made more sense to focus on eliminating Ebola in the source countries for the disease, calling it the fastest way to ensure Americans don’t contract the virus.
“Dozens and dozens” of people have been prevented on getting on planes in West Africa, Monaco added, thanks to screening procedures in place there.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell; Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health; and others leading the federal government’s Ebola response attempted to assuage Americans’ concerns about a disease that has shown a 50 percent death rate in recent months.
Their message: Don’t panic.
“Our healthcare infrastructure in the United States is well-equipped to stop Ebola in its tracks,” Fauci argued.
The press conference came in the same week that the first Ebola case in the U.S. was diagnosed in Texas and on the same day that a hospital in Washington, D.C., admitted a patient showing Ebola-like symptoms.
