All epidemiologists agree that the best way to prevent an outbreak of Ebola in the United States is to monitor travelers and to isolate those who become symptomatic. Quarantining or embargoing travelers from West Africa will make it
more likely that Americans will become infected.
The surest means of preventing Ebola from spreading in the United States it to stop it in West Africa. Right now, it is contained in a relatively small geographical area. It it spreads to Africa generally (and to the Mediterranean, and to Europe) it will be impossible to prevent it from spreading here as well. In order to stop it, obstacles must not be put in the way of public health workers who would be willing to treat it. If a doctor or nurse knows that his life will be interrupted by either a 21 day quarantine or a prohibition of his entry into the United States, he is unlikely to volunteer. Provisioning those public health workers in Africa who
have volunteered will become difficult as well.
Secondly, travelers who have been in an area of contagion, knowing that they will be detained or excluded from our country, will be encouraged to try to evade normal travel channels (and their concurrent oversight by government public health monitors) and try to slip into the country undetected.
While it is not beyond the realm of possibility for Ebola to be transmitted via a cough or a sneeze, the fact is that
there isn't a single documented case of that ever having happened. The probability of an airline passenger contracting Ebola from a fellow traveler is close to zero.
The nurses in Texas Presbyterian are thought to have become infected due to inadequate safety gear or to improper disrobing procedure,
not as a result of being sneezed on by Thomas Duncan.
The fact is that anyone who advocates quarantine or embargo is increasing the risk to his fellow Americans. Those politicians who are so doing are either profoundly ignorant or are pandering to the fears of their constituents for political purposes (i.e. votes.) Either way, their behavior is deplorable and a good reason to eject them from public service as soon as possible, be they Republican or Democrat.
Let's allow the experts to do what we hired them to do