Conservative favorite and former top John Hopkins neurosurgeon Ben Carson thinks the White House is keeping embattled Centers for Disease Control head Tom Frieden from saying what the country really needs to do to fight Ebola.
“I think if Dr. Frieden were 100 percent free to say what he wanted to say, I think he would be saying some different things,” Carson told Hugh Hewitt on Friday. “I think he’d be saying of course, banning flights coming from infected areas makes sense. That would be the first thing he’d say.”
Carson, who previously served as the director of pediatric neurosurgery for John Hopkins, made the comments in response to Hewitt’s questioning about why Carson would turn down a request from President Obama himself to serve in the administration as Surgeon General.
“I look at some of the other people, and I know them, you know, who are speaking on behalf of the administration,” Carson answered. “And I feel that they’re being constrained in what they’re saying,” the CDC’s Frieden included.
Carson is in favor of banning flights from countries in West Africa that are suffering from Ebola outbreaks, telling “Fox and Friends” on Wednesday that it’s “just common sense.”
“And you know, I think [Frieden] would be concentrating a lot more on finding out exactly what happened to transmit this disease to health care workers,” Carson continued on Friday. “You know, we still only have a vague notion, and that’s really a very important piece of information to come up with.”
The potential 2016 candidate also reiterated his support for a 21-day quarantine of all non-U.S. citizens traveling from the countries affected the worst by the Ebola outbreak. (RELATED: President Ben Carson Would Implement Ebola Travel Ban)
“I mean, you don’t even have to be a medical expert to recognize that,” Carson remarked about such a quarantine. “I mean, that’s such basic knowledge. And you know, many of the African countries have shut off their borders to people coming from the infected areas.”
Carson doesn’t believe Americans are currently facing much risk of catching Ebola right now and that the American health care system is capable of handling the current threat. But if the epidemic spreads further out from West Africa, however, that could become much more difficult — especially if it reaches areas with poor sanitation, including the Middle East and South and Central America.
“Who knows what happens if it gets into South and Central America?” Carson asked. “And it doesnt’ matter how good our protocols are at that point. We’re going to be inundated.”