Florida Senator Marco Rubio announced his intentions to introduce a bill in November banning the ability of nationals from three African countries to obtain a United States visa, Monday. Rubio is calling for travel bans for the countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Should Rubio successfully campaign and have the bill signed by the president, it will go into effect immediately.
The bans will prevent citizens of those three countries from entering the US, including those who are traveling for prevention and treatment of the disease. Rubio argues by containing the disease at its source, containment of the disease will be easier.
President Obama has publically disagreed with this approach. He argues that if the U.S. restricts travel from the most infected countries, those citizens will try to enter the U.S. through other countries. This would make containing of the disease even harder, and could increase the spread of the disease in the U.S.
The president’s argument is correct. He is supporting a more sensible idea of containing the disease once it is in the U.S. and ensuring the World Health Organization will be able to track those who are infected.
For evidence that this method of prevention is effective look to Nigeria. Africa’s most populous country saw its first infection in July due to an air traveler. Thanks to an aggressive government response of containment and treatment, the country only saw 19 cases and seven deaths. The World Health Organization even commented, “This is a spectacular success story that shows that Ebola can be contained,” and went on to say, “Many wealthy countries, with outstanding health systems, may have something to learn”. For an outbreak to officially be ruled over Nigeria had to go 42 days, twice the incubation period, without having any new cases reported.
There is a lesson the U.S. and Senator Rubio can learn from the example set in Nigeria. While Ebola is an incredibly infectious disease, it cannot be spread through food, air or water. Ebola is spread exclusively through bodily fluids. Restricting those who can come into the country will do little to prevent the spread of the disease. This will only make it more difficult for the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control to track the spread of it.
Senator Rubio is trying to make Ebola a political issue. He could be doing this for campaigning purposes in 2016 or perhaps just to contrast the president’s current strategy. Whatever the reason may be, he is making a mistake on behalf of the United States.
Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Center for Disease Control has said a travel ban could even hurt the U.S. A travel ban on specific countries has never been put in place by the U.S. and would be a knee-jerk reaction. The last time the U.S. enacted a travel ban was in 1987 on all those outside the U.S. diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. This was clearly not effective, and would be no more effective today. Ebola is a deadly virus that needs to be handled with the proper strategy. That strategy needs to be determined by scientists, not politicians.
Miller is a freshman opinion columnist for The Daily Cardinal. What do you think is the best approach for containing Ebola? Has this issue become too political or do we have to start taking drastic measures, like Senator Rubio’s proposal? Do you think that countries like the United States are at risk of an Ebola outbreak or will our exisiting medical infrastructure be able to prevent an outbreak? Tell us how you feel and please send all of your feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
