Democratic senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina was emphatic earlier this week that instituting a travel ban on those attempting to enter the United States from West African nations ravaged by the Ebola virus was “not going to help solve the problem.” Hagan’s Republican opponent, Thom Tillis, had been one of the first candidates for office to suggest the ban.
“That’s not going to help solve this problem,” said Hagan Wednesday when asked about Tillis’s position. “That’s not going to contain the epidemic that we see happening in Africa.”
But in a statement released Friday afternoon by her official Senate office, Hagan appears to have changed her mind.
“I have said for weeks that travel restrictions should be one part of a broad strategy to prevent Ebola from spreading in the U.S. and fighting it in Africa,” said Hagan in her statement. “I am calling on the Administration to temporarily ban the travel of non-U.S. citizens from the affected countries in West Africa. Although stopping the spread of this virus overseas will require a large, coordinated effort with the international community, a temporary travel ban is a prudent step the President can take to protect the American people, and I believe he should do so immediately.”
In that Wednesday press conference, Hagan also praised the CDC for “giving us great guidance” on the spread of the virus.
