White House spokesman Kush Desai attacked the Post, denying that the administration was unwilling to accept Stafford. “This is completely false and another reason why the Washington Post is no longer worth the paper it’s printed on,” Desai wrote in an email. He said the main concern of the Trump administration is to ensure the health and safety of citizens, and praised the quality of the German hospital that treated Stafford.
There are many centers and hospital systems in the United States that are capable of providing safe, high-quality care to Ebola patients.
At a press briefing Wednesday afternoon, Pillai repeatedly dodged questions about the United States’ refusal to allow Americans exposed to Ebola to return home for treatment and care. He also failed to explain how Germany and the Czech Republic, not known for their expertise in dealing with Ebola, were chosen to care for the Americans or whether other countries were asked to take them in and refused.
At one point, when asked if the White House had decided to turn the Americans away, Pillai replied, “I would say at this point, the plans for these individuals moving in are based on the conditions on the ground, the need to mobilize quickly – as you know, it was a very quick set of circumstances that came up over the weekend. As much as we could.”
Travel restrictions
In addition to sending Americans elsewhere for care and monitoring, the United States has imposed travel restrictions in response to the Ebola outbreak. Americans arriving from the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan will be subject to health screening, and non-US passport holders who have traveled to those countries in the past 21 days will be denied entry.
In statement on Tuesday, The African CDC responded to the restrictions and said “its position is clear: generalized travel restrictions and border closures are not the solution to epidemics. Such measures can create fear, harm economies, prevent transparency, complicate humanitarian and health operations, and divert movement to informal and uncontrolled routes – potentially increasing public health risks rather than reducing them.”
CDC Africa Director General Jean Kaseya added: “The fastest way to protect all countries around the world is to aggressively support outbreak control at the source. Global health security cannot be achieved through borders alone. It is achieved through partnerships, trust, science and rapid investment in preparedness and response capacity.”
