Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr Anthony Fauci explained to Fox & Friends Monday that it was “unhelpful” to ban flights from west African countries, saying that to do so would “marginalize” them and risk allowing their countries to implode, creating an even greater global risk.
After having appeared on Chris Wallace Sunday, Fauci followed up the interview on Fox & Friends Monday morning. One of his primary goals: to defend the federal response to Ebola, particularly the decision not to ban flights, including commercial flights, from Ebola-risk countries in west Africa:
Fauci: From a public health standpoint, that really doesn’t make any sense. It’s understandable that people might figure that that might help. But when you completely seal off and don’t let planes in or out of the west African countries involved, then you could paradoxically make things much worse, in the sense that you can’t get supplies in, you can’t get help in, you can’t get the kind of things in there that we need to contain the epidemic. And the best way to protect America is to suppress the epidemic in west Africa.
And if we completely isolate them—don’t let anything in, don’t let anything out—we know from experience in public health that marginalizes them. You could have civil unrest, governments could fall, and then you wind up having spread the virus to other countries in west Africa, which would only compound the problem.”
Host Elizabeth Hasselbeck then asked if something “less extreme” like only blocking commercial flights from Ebola-infected countries could work, in essence a “closing of our borders of travel” to those countries. Appearing almost offended by the question, Fauci responded:
A “closing of our borders,” I’m sorry I don’t know what you mean by that.
After she explained only commercial flights, while allowing medical supplies and other necessary emergency flights, Fauci said that simply “doesn’t work” and would not be “helpful,” adding that public officials were in consensus on that:
Fauci: I’m sorry, but that doesn’t work. … It’s completely impractical and in fact from a public health standpoint, not helpful to do that. Every public health official feels that way.
In his interview with Chris Wallace Sunday, Fauci dismissed any concerns about Ebola coming across the southern border, whether by illegal immigrant or deliberate terrorist plot:
Fauci: I wouldn’t be worried about Ebola coming across our southern borders when we have an Ebola issue right now in South Africa. That’s a hypothetical that’s very far-fetched. As far as terrorism — nature right now is the worth bioterrorist. I’m worried more about natural evolution in west Africa than I am about a terrorist.
Watch Fauci's interview with Hasselback here via Mediaite.
