My God, I almost can't believe it!

[Savannahmann]

60. You need a passport these days.

If you haven't left the national boundary lately, you must have a passport.

But for the sake of argument, let us say that the passport idea is only 90% effective at screening out people who have been in the affected area. Let's pretend that it's like the good old days when you could travel from San Diego to Tijuana for lunch, and be back without anything but a Hi to the guy at the gate. Let's even agree that it does not protect against people who came into contact with those who might meet someone from the affected areas, and potentially be infected.

A 90% reduction in risk is a hell of a thing. Even if it was only a 50% reduction, that is thousands and then by extension tens of thousands of people not at risk.

Apollo 11 and 12 crews spent time in isolation, because while the risk of some space born disease was a one in a million chance, the results of such a disease could wipe out a significant portion of the population. Look at the situation now, a thousand people just from the activities of two nurses. More than 800 alone from the flight. Sure, we're assured by the same people who told us there was no risk of infection that only ten or so actually have a slightly higher risk, but look at the math on that. From one, to two more, to potentially ten, to potentially hundreds.

We have the mechanism, it's already in place. We do lots of things that are not 100% effective. We spray for insects to prevent everything from roaches to termites. It's not 100% effective, but we do it anyway because the results are horrid if we do nothing. Lysol kills less than 100% of the germs, but we use it to do just that. No disinfectant is 100% but still we use them to clean surgical suites. We may not be able to eliminate all of the risk, but we damn sure bust our asses to do what we can. Hospitals get sued if they don't take every precaution that is available to prevent the spread of infection.

We have the mechanism, and it would take two words from one man to make it happen. All President Obama would have to do is discuss this with his advisors, and then say those two magical words. "Do it." He might have to sign a piece of paper with more than that, but it would be done.

That is the reason we have an executive based Governmental system. So that one individual can issue instructions when time is of the essence. He wouldn't need Congress, he could call them back and ask for more money, but realistically, he can issue the order today and reduce the risk by more than 90%. Every hour he delays in this action is one in which his esteem falls, and every hour the Democratic Party is silent in demanding this action is one in which we lose supporters by the hundreds.