US To Begin Screening Airline Passengers From West Africa This Week. Kate Snow reported on NBC Nightly News (10/7, story 3, 2:13, Williams) that while passengers leaving West Africa “are already being screened,” the US government will now “begin screening incoming passengers at airports in this country some time this week.” Snow noted that experts say that while it is “likely another Ebola case will travel into the US,” isolated cases “do not equal an outbreak.” CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden was shown saying, “The enemy is a virus. It’s a difficult virus to stop, but we know how to control it.” The New York Times (10/8, Mouawad, Subscription Publication) reports that while health officials “promised extra measures to screen airline passengers arriving into the United States,” they “remained opposed to more draconian travel restrictions that they say would cause more problems than they would solve.” CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden “said new measures would be announced in coming days but cautioned against measures that could backfire or prove ineffective in the long run.” Frieden said, “If we do something that impedes our ability to stop the outbreak in West Africa, it could spread further there, we could have more countries like Liberia, and the challenge would be much greater and go on for a longer time.” The Washington Post (10/7, Halsey) reports the White House said Tuesday new screening measures for airline passengers will be released in “the coming days.” The article cites Sen. Charles Schumer saying the new steps are being developed by the CDC. The article notes that the President’s promise of “stepped-up screening” will “fall on the shoulders of the Customs and Border Protection officers who greet passengers arriving from abroad.” The CBP is quoted saying, “When a traveler or alien is identified with a possible communicable disease, CBP personnel will take the appropriate safety measures by donning personal protective equipment...If they identify an individual believed to be infected, CBP will contact CDC along with local public health authorities to help with further medical evaluation.” Another Washington Post (10/7, Berman) article says the new measures “could theoretically prevent some people who are infected with the Ebola virus from entering the country” but will not be able to stop every person with Ebola arriving in the US “because of the simple realities of the disease ravaging West Africa, whose symptoms take time to manifest, as well as the nature of air travel in the 21st century.” Frieden is quoted saying, “The plain truth is, we can’t make the risk zero until the outbreak is controlled in West Africa...What we can do is minimize that risk.”
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 12:08:30 +0000
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