Sen. Tom Cotton called on the Trump administration to issue a “targeted travel ban” to contain the spread of a respiratory illness from China.
Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, said in a letter to members of President Trump’s cabinet Tuesday that the United States should halt all flights from China and that U.S. citizens should be allowed to return home only under “appropriate, elevated monitoring.” His letter urged officials to restrict trade from China and to allow medical personnel and scientists to travel there to help contain the virus.
“Given the latest developments and the many unknowns about this virus, we ought to follow Benjamin Franklin’s maxim: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Cotton wrote.
Five people in the U.S. who traveled to where the virus originated in Wuhan, China, are confirmed to have been infected with the coronavirus. An additional 110 people are under investigation in the U.S. for possible infection. At least 4,515 people in China have been infected, and 106 have died.
In arguing for the travel and trade ban, Cotton noted that Chinese officials have quarantined more than 50 million people and canceled school. He also noted reports that showed people who don’t have symptoms of the virus may still be able to spread it to others.
Global public health officials have cautioned countries not to implement travel and trade bans in response to illness outbreaks, as they’ve been shown not to work. Countries that know they’ll be isolated won’t report cases of contagion, causing viruses to spread and making the problem worse.
In the U.S., temperature screening is underway for coronavirus for people who are flying into 20 airports. On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged people to cancel all nonessential travel to China, and Trump’s top health chief, Alex Azar, said “all options are on the table” when it comes to travel restrictions.
Travel bans have been controversial during the Trump administration. Trump has been accused of religious discrimination for implementing a travel ban shortly after entering office suspending immigration from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia, in part because he promised during the campaign that he would ban Muslims from coming to the U.S. A version of the ban was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Trump confirmed last week that he planned to expand the list of countries, though he didn’t say which ones. Before he entered politics, Trump called on President Barack Obama to block travel from West Africa during an Ebola outbreak in 2014.
