Worried Americans have posted a petition at the White House calling for President Barack Obama to block travelers from Ebola-stricken countries.
“Have the FAA ban all incoming and outgoing flights to Ebola-stricken countries until the ebola outbreak is contained,” says the Oct. 1 petition.
The petition went up after officials working for Obama made clear that he doesn’t want to block travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea, where the out-of-control contagious disease has already killed more than 3,300 people.
“We do not shut our borders to countries affected by #Ebola; didn’t w/ SARS or pandemic H1N1 flu,” said a tweeted Oct. 2 declaration from Tom Frieden, Obama’s chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The administration’s opposition to travel curbs reflects Obama’s progressive priorities, which tend to view the priorities of Americans as on par with the priorities of foreigners. For example, Obama has let 130,000 poor Central Americans migrants cross the southern border since last October, despite polls showing lopsided opposition to the migration.
That refusal to block air travel came as officials tried to contain an outbreak in Dallas caused by a disease-carrier who flew in from Liberia Sept. 20.
The outbreak has forced the isolation of the disease-carrier’s immigrant relations, medical monitoring of several kids and extensive efforts to track down other people who may have contracted the disease from the patient.
Numerous African countries are blocking travelers from the three countries.
News reports also say roughly 13,500 visas to enter the United States have been given to people in those countries.
“The Ebola virus has reached unprecedented epidemic proportions in West Africa, and has been joined by another unrelated concurrent outbreak in the Congo,” said the petition.
“Experts had stated it was ‘highly unlikely’ that Ebola would show up on American soil,” said the petition.
“The citizens of the US are scared. We do not want any more Ebola-infected individuals bringing the epidemic to our shores. The longer we allow people to enter our country from Ebola-stricken areas, the higher the chance another person infected with Ebola will arrive here, putting ALL of our citizens at risk.”
“Please tell the FAA to ban ALL incoming flights from any/all Ebola-stricken regions,” the petition concludes.
