The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease opposes closing off U.S. contact with countries hit by the Ebola virus and needing help.
“Any health care professional will agree that it’s not a good idea to close off the country,” Anthony Fauci said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Closing off countries struggling to fight Ebola would make things worse for them, he said, stressing that isolation could “cause unrest” and even a tumbling of governments.
Being unable to get “supplies in and out,” as well as personnel, would not be wise, Fauci said.
When asked by Fox’s Chris Wallace if the U.S. should be worried about its southern borders and illegal immigrants coming in with the disease on purpose, Fauci said that type of talk is all “hypothetical.”
“Nature right now is the worst bioterrorist,” he said. “We should be more worried about that in Africa.”
He pressed that using Ebola as a bioterror weapon is “not the most effective,” and that nature itself is “worse than a bioterrorist.”
The White House echoed these sentiments last week amid calls to close the borders, saying a travel ban would “impede” the response of the U.S. to Ebola.
