Should all flights in and out of Texas be stopped "to mitigate the threat of a future outbreak?"

[Renew Deal]

And what about roads?

On Tuesday, Rep. Pete Sessions of Dallas, a member of GOP House leadership, asked the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “to thoughtfully reassess the risk of travel from Liberia … to mitigate the threat of a future outbreak.”

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20141002-ebola-case-in-dallas-wont-prompt-travel-restrictions--yet.ece

[hobbit709]

1. If they quarantined Dallas it wouldn't bother me a bit.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

29. So, you wouldn't be bothered for an entire Democratic city to be quarantined?

For what purpose would this be necessary and why wouldn't it bother you?

[hobbit709]

30. There's a lot people here in Austin that don't particularly care about Dallas.

But then as a long-time South Austinite I consider anything north of Town Lake as South Dallas.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

37. You Austinites (I am a former Austin resident) don't like that Dallas County is

blue? WTF is up with that?

[hobbit709]

39. It's got nothing to do with blue, it's just that it's Dallas.

[hollysmom]

2. I go with Colbert

I want them to secede so that we won't have ebola in the USA anymore.

[strawberries]

36. there is a case of ebola in MA.

should we close down Boston?

[hollysmom]

42. and there is a quarentined woman in NJ who does not care what happens as long as she gets her

take out. It can cost us a bundle as police have to babysit her, but special snowflake lives on.
Look, it was a joke. moving on.

[strawberries]

43. sorry sometimes I can't tell around here nt

[hollysmom]

44. I have friends in Texas, they think they can turn the state around, they wanted me to move there

to help swing the vote (much like my sister wanted me to move to North Carolina because she said the voters are crazy religious people. Why would I want to move to a state the did not have the same beliefs as me - oh wait, that would be every where, Nope, going to die in my house and make my family get rid of everything in it, too much work for me to move now.

[In_The_Wind]

3. We aren't going to shut down Texas.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. Certainly Mexico, which has zero Ebola cases, should seal its border with Texas.

It is the only effective response to this epidemic, or so I've been told here on DU.


Meanwhile a friend of mine's daughter is volunteering to go to Liberia as part of our military response team. She's an RN and is getting trained by the CDC and will be there in a few weeks working on an actual effective response.

[Vinca]

5. From what I've been hearing this morning, maybe the idea isn't so far fetched.

Apparently the hospital had no protocols and the original patient was left lying round the ER for hours with no special treatment. Employees were taking no special precautions. They were exposed. Other patients were exposed. This could really snowball.

[librechik]

14. what scares me is I'm sure this is common across the country

[justiceischeap]

6. I think there is a difference of degrees here

I think there's a difference between two isolated cases and then countries that are at epidemic levels of outbreak.

As far as we know, everyone in Texas is being monitored. I think placing a temporary ban on incoming and outgoing flights, sans relief workers and scientists, is not a bad thing if we're talking about areas that are at epidemic level. Texas isn't quite there yet.

[Drayden]

12. Yours would be the only intelligent response

In a thread filled with idiotic statements. West Africa has has over 10,000 cases of Ebola, TX has had 3, caused by 1 immigrant from Liberia. Yes, travel should be shut down from West Africa, just like other countries have done. Had we done that in the first place, Duncan wouldn't have brought ebola to TX. It's all fun and games until it shows up in your state.

[Fumesucker]

24. Satire, irony and sarcasm are common on DU

And not everyone labels those things when they post.

Welcome to DU!

[HockeyMom]

15. You would have to ban ALL overseas flights

Connecting flights within Europe would be a big problem. It could not be just direct flight from Africa. What if somebody from Europe went to Africa. Went back home to say London. Stay there for a few days and then flew to the US from London. That would not even be a connecting flight. Stop flights to and from London? You would have to depend on the British, French,Belgians, etc., to stop all their flights to and from Africa.

[justiceischeap]

18. And if your passport says you've been to Africa

you don't get to fly to the U.S. You don't have to stop all International travel you just stop those that have been to Africa in the last two months.

[Renew Deal]

20. All of Africa or just the countries with infections?

South Africa, Egypt, etc. have not had this problem.

[HockeyMom]

23. Hope they stamp the Passport?

They didn't stamp my Passport in the Bahamas on a cruise. Nobody would ever know that I have ever visisted the place. Coming back? US Customs were waving anyone with a US Passport right through.

[Katashi_itto]

7. Yes. Wall off Texas for 20 years. No contact, we can have a grand social experiment then.

[HockeyMom]

8. Planes are the only way to get in and out of Texas?

or any other state for that matter. How would you stop people from driving, or just walking, in and out? Impossible. lol

[edhopper]

10. That is the point

Sessions is an idiot if he thinks cancelling flights from W Africa to here will stop the threat.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

16. You seem to miss the purpose of visas

Doesn't matter where the person flies in from, that person from Liberia, Sierra Leone, etc., needs a visa to get here. You can easily determine where the visa was issued and when.

It's not rocket science.

[edhopper]

17. You're agreeing

with Sessions ??!!??

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

19. I'm agreeing with medical experts

that quarantine is the best way to decrease infection, whether it's one patient, one household, one village, or an entire country if need be.

But then they get on tv and say stupid shit like "that would only make things worse because we couldn't get doctors and supplies in and out of western Africa." Who wrote that stupid script?

It's just idiotic. As if we have never thought of phrases like "exceptions for medical personnel and military" who would also have to use precautions and might also have to be quarantined before departure to go back to their home countries.

MORE needs to be done in western Africa! The UN and WHO needs to step up and get the world involved in helping these people before hundreds of thousands die.

Meanwhile, we fling shit at the nurses in Dallas. Sad.

[edhopper]

46. Wow

have a nice day.
I would just be juried out if I told you what I thought of that post.

Quarantine the country?

[HockeyMom]

25. Do foreigners need a visa to go to Liberia, etc?

The problem is only their citizens? As far as passports, read my post about my passport.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

27. Yes. From the U.S.

As for other countries, I don't know, but that is not a difficult requirement to implement.

Containment is the key...along with better care for the people in those western African countries! It's like they have fallen off the map, now that we have a few ebola cases here!

There's hysteria, and then there are proper precautions. Right now, we have lots of hysteria (ok, some hysteria over improper precautions on my part...haha). I worked (past tense) in a hospital lab assisting and doing phlebotomy going room to room, so I know what it's like to see your first highly contagious patient in four months and the mental preparation "Now, how do I do that again?"

Seriously.

[Agschmid]

40. I am somewhat naive to this but...

I just got back from Europe, I went on vacation. I had no visa for my travel there and I was allowed to roam free for over a week.

Again I am naive to this but doesn't the U.S. allow similar behavior for tourists, or folks on business trips?

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

41. Depends on which country, and agreements between countries

I've only need visas to enter two countries and that was years ago.

And, I did need a visa for an extended stay in one country that doesn't otherwise require a visa.

However, that was long ago.

[yellowcanine]

11. Well we could build a fence and get the Minutemen to guard it.

[Hortensis]

21. That's Jon Stewart's answer last night to the "Sanity-Resistant Strain Of Ebola Fear" taking

over Texas, a state unwilling to "waste" taxpayer money on public health and controlling its epidemic health problems. Build their border wall, just re-routed a bit...

(Rational, responsible Texans, I haven't really forgotten you're there.)

[edhopper]

9. If we did that in 2000

our country would be better off.

[Logical]

13. PANIC!! nt

[Ron Green]

22. Wait 20 minutes. I'm sitting at my gate at Love Field

and I want get on this plane.

[FloriTexan]

26. What about mass transit...

If they are going to lock it down, then lock everything down for a month. I live in the Dallas area and ride the train that serves the area around Presbyterian Hospital. We've had some serious transit issues the last month because of high winds and power outages. We had a four-hour commute home one evening when all rail service shut down. Hundreds of us were dumped off at the Mockingbird Station which is right across the street from Presby to wait for shuttle buses. It was total chaos and people who thought they were being funny joking about ebola when we're literally packed in a train or bus, shoulder to shoulder were not appreciated.

I am starting to get a little concerned and wonder how many of the health care workers rode the train or bus to the hospital.

[B Calm]

28. Impeaching the governor of Texas would do more!

[pinboy3niner]

33. And deal a devastating blow to border security?

That would cut security by 50%, leaving only Hannity to protect us from immigrant children!

[B Calm]

38. LOL

[Crunchy Frog]

31. Yes. And seal the borders.

[Ms. Toad]

32. Not such an off the wall question - now that we know that the second infected patient

flew within 24 hours of displaying symptoms - with 132 new contacts now being sought for monitoring.

http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2014/10/dallas_ebola_patient_traveled.html

[Ichingcarpenter]

34. I say we take

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[strawberries]

35. my concern is the planes

How are we cleaning the planes? Not so much TX.

[LisaL]

45. Since an infected woman visited OH before flying back, add OH to that list.

And whatever other states Mr. Duncan's contacts have been visiting recently.