Travel Ban?

Concern has inevitably been raised involving the new Ebola crisis, that was recently brought to Dallas Texas.  Questions have been arising over the topic of travel bans, and what can be done to stop this epidemic.  Recently, Andrew Sullivan posted a new article called “ The Grave Risks Of A Travel Ban,” on his blog known as The Dish.  Sullivan is a British author, editor and blogger, resident in the U.S.  Born and raised in England, his conservatism was established in his British Catholic background.  Sullivan expresses the issues and concerns of enforcing a travel ban by interpreting health officials including, the thoughts of Dr. Frieden on the subject.  Sullivan intends for his audience to be us, readers of the blog, to inform the people of the issues that are being debated on this topic.  Sullivan mainly speaks on the opinions of health officials and house speakers.

Sullivan starts off his article with the opinions of several health officials who want to enforce a travel ban between the U.S and West African countries.  Officials have spoken on how this Ebola issue needs to be resolved in Africa but until it is they are raising concern on whether of not we should allow these people in.  Dr. Frieden suggests that providing material support to the affected regions and securing the outbreak at its source is the main need that should be met at the moment. Sullivan’s article explains the needs that actually need to be met right now.  Panicking over the outbreak will most likely cause more harm than the disease itself in this instance.

I think that Sullivan presents these ideas in a good manner. As stated in the article our worries should not be focused on how this disease can get into the U.S, instead it should be on the fact that this disease could get into the larger portions of West Africa, where they don’t have the health facilities and quarantine set-ups that we have.  If we ban travel how are we supposed to help these people who are dying from the disease? My hope is that we can all be mature on the subject and act upon the needs of the people who are really facing the Ebola crisis.