Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Sunday, October 05, 2014

Bobby Jindal is still an idiot

He wants the U.S. to ban all flights from nations where Ebola virus has been found and, he says:

[T]he Obama administration keeps saying they won’t shut down flights. They instead say we should listen to 'the experts.' In fact, they said it would be counterproductive to stop these flights. That statement defies logic. How exactly would stopping the entry of people potentially carrying the Ebola virus be counterproductive? This seems to be an obvious step to protect public health in the United States.
 Okay doofus, it's time for you to listen to an expert. In the first place, the Dallas patient arrived on a flight from Brussels. I don't even know if there are any direct flights from Liberia or Sierra Leone to the U.S., but even if there are, it's easy enough for people to take connecting flights, even to travel over land to Lagos or wherever. So it would be pointless. Furthermore . . .

In order to combat the epidemic in west Africa, it is necessary to bring in personnel and supplies. Airlines obviously can't fly in if they can't fly out. It is also important to limit the economic collapse in those countries, and to limit fear and civil unrest. Closing them off from the outside world is about the worst thing we can do. Furthermore . . .

As you presumably know if you are conscious, there have in fact been several people in the U.S. with Ebola. We bring our citizens here when they contract it. Not a problem. Mr. Duncan's contacts are being carefully monitored. It wouldn't be surprising if one or two of them do come down with the disease -- particularly his family members who he was living with -- but it will stop there. The screwup at the hospital that allowed him to go home will not be repeated.

So again, Ebola is a problem in poor countries that lack medical and public health infrastructure. It is not a threat to become an epidemic in the United States or any other country -- even a middle income country like Mexico or Brazil -- that has the resources to deal with it properly. So please stop pissing in your pants.

3 comments:

Don Quixotte said...

Good column. Lots of idiots in politics. Welcome back to the USA. And proofread your blog titles :-)

Don Quixote said...

And I'll proofread my screen name!

Cervantes said...

Yeah yeah, it's fixed.