State Dept. Claims It Has No Plans to Bring Ebola Victims to US, Despite Memo; Australia's Travel Ban on Ebola-Hit Countries Slammed as 'Discriminatory'
The West African countries hardest hit by the Ebola virus outbreak have called Australia's recently imposed travel ban "discriminatory," arguing that it will not help in the fight against the epidemic. The U.S. meanwhile continues debating its own response, with the State Department denying that it's considering plans to bring over non-citizens for Ebola treatment.
Australia's ban on visas for citizens of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea was the first of its kind by a developed nation, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The move has been called draconian by Sierra Leone, and criticized by the U.N. for potentially discouraging vital relief work.
"It is discriminatory in that ... it is not [going] after Ebola but rather it is ... against the 24 million citizens of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea," Sierra Leone Information Minister Alpha Kanu said. "Certainly, it is not the right way to go."
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Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf added:
"Anytime there's stigmatisation, there's quarantine, there's exclusion of people, many of whom are just normal, then those of us who are fighting this epidemic, when we face that, we get very sad."
Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo, whose country has so far escaped the outbreak, said that such travel bans from Western countries only create "mass panic."
"If they create mass panic ... this fear will eventually spread beyond ordinary people to health workers or people who transport the sick and then what will happen? Entire populations will be wiped out," Opondo said.
Fox News meanwhile obtained an internal memo suggesting that the State Department wants to invite non-American citizens to come to the U.S. for Ebola treatment.
The memo was reportedly obtained after House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson a week ago to inquire whether the U.S. is formulating such a plan. It recommends that "State and DHS devise a system for expeditious parole of Ebola-infected non-citizens into the United States as long as they are otherwise eligible for medical evacuation from the Ebola affected countries and for entry into the United States."
The State Department denied those plans on Tuesday, however, calling them "completely false," claiming that the U.S. is only planning on lending its planes to other countries that want to transport Ebola patients back home.
"There are absolutely no plans to MEDEVAC non-Americans who become ill from West Africa to the United States," said the State Department official, who wasn't named. "We have discussed allowing other countries to use our MEDEVAC capabilities to evacuate their own citizens to their home countries or third-countries, subject to reimbursement and availability. But we are not contemplating bringing them back to the U.S. for treatment."
The U.S. has discussed closing its own borders to West African countries, but so far no such decision has been made. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., had suggested travel bans on people departing from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea earlier in October, but Congresswoman Gwen Moore, D-Wis., said that such a move would only make the situation worse in the affected countries.
"Understandably, many Americans have grown increasingly worried about the recent confirmed cases of Ebola within our country's borders. This response is certainly reasonable, and I share my constituents' concern, but it is important to ensure that our alarm about this virus doesn't lead to unreasonable and dangerous actions," Moore said.
"This idea may seem like a quick fix but in reality, isolating West Africa will only exacerbate the epidemic in the region. Aside from being impractical, this reactionary strategy will force Ebola patients underground making it nearly impossible to track their movements, hinder the capacity for international healthcare workers to transport and administer critical aid, and erode the continent's fragile economy," she added.
Moore's statements have been echoed by the World Health Organization, which has warned that overly restrictive quarantines and travel bans might stop relief workers from travelling to West Africa, where such help is greatly needed.
"We desperately need international health workers ... They are really the key to this response," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said.
The total death count from Ebola in the three hardest-hit countries is fast approaching 5,000 people. There has been some success in fighting the virus in neighboring countries that reported isolated cases earlier this year, however, as Senegal and Nigeria were declared Ebola-free in October.
