Florida’s leaders continue to bang the drums, calling for the federal government to do more regarding the Ebola threat and urging local readiness.
After news surfaced that a doctor in New York came down with Ebola after returning from Guinea where he treated patients suffering from the disease, Gov. Rick Scott urged more action from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
“The news of Dr. Spencer testing positive for Ebola after returning to the U.S. last week from treating Ebola patients makes it clear that the CDC and federal government must do more to protect health-care workers around the world and our citizens here at home,” Scott said on Friday before urging the Obama administration to monitor volunteers — like Dr. Craig Spencer — with the same standards as military personnel.
“The Department of Defense’s guidance for U.S. military members who are deployed to fight Ebola in Africa requires even those at low risk of exposure to be monitored by health-care professionals with twice daily checkups for 21 days after they return home,” Scott said. “Returning military members with a high risk of exposure are required to be monitored under quarantine for 21 days. This 21-day period of care for military men and women allows them to be closely monitored after they have been in contact with Ebola. It is common sense for the federal government to standardize this protocol for all volunteers and personnel in Ebola-infected areas. The federal government must provide the same level of precautionary care for volunteer health-care workers, like Dr. Spencer, and federal nonmilitary personnel, including the CDC, as they do for the U.S. military. They are all on the front lines of the fight against Ebola, and they are all expected to return to the U.S.
“Ensuring that all workers abroad are required to take the same safeguards and precautions as our U.S. military personnel will not only provide an equal level of care for these selfless health-care workers, it will also better protect all our citizens here in Florida and across the country from any threat of this deadly disease,” Scott continued. “We are glad that we still do not have a case of Ebola here in Florida, and we hope we never do, but we must do everything we can to prepare to combat this disease – and urge the federal government to do everything in their power to stay ahead of its spread and not fall behind, as the CDC has already admitted happened to them with the fatal case in Dallas.”
On Capitol Hill on Friday, during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee meeting, U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., pressed Dr. Nicole Lurie, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on why she has not been a leading public figure in warning about Ebola.
“It seems like your profile has been a lot lower … even though your office is a key one,” DeSantis said.
Lurie insisted that other officials — including Tom Frieden from the CDC — were being relied on to communicate with the public.
DeSantis then turned his attention to Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who traveled to Dallas after contracting Ebola. Duncan died in a Dallas hospital.
“Were you guys prepared in your office for Thomas Eric Duncan or did you drop the ball and could you have done some things better?” DeSantis demanded.
Lurie replied that there were many components for the “full system to work” including the federal and state governments, health-care workers and hospitals.
“Certainly there were some breakdowns and links in the chain,” Lurie said. “Do I think we the have done a good job preparing hospitals and health-care systems for disasters? Yes I do.”
Lurie also insisted her team was being “aggressive” in communication and training hospitals and health-care workers on Ebola. She also noted that Obama had named Ron Klain as Ebola czar in recent days and will be active in continuing to coordinate efforts. DeSantis noted that Klain had been invited to testify before the committee but he did not come.
Even as the Obama administration continues to insist temporary travel bans on Ebola-impacted nations in Africa are not required, members of Congress are continuing to push for them. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., have introduced bills to enact temporary travel bans on three West African nations impacted by Ebola.
One of the most vocal Democrats backing the travel bans is U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., who sent out an email to supporters this week, making the case for the bans.
“The U.S. should implement an immediate temporary travel ban preventing entry by citizens of the West African countries afflicted by the Ebola virus, as I said in July. Had we done that, we wouldn’t have Ebola in the U.S. right now,” Grayson wrote. “No blood test can detect Ebola in victims who are newly infected. Human carriers are asymptomatic for as long as three weeks.
“When Ebola does start to show a symptom — high temperature — that symptom can be masked with ibuprofen. Thus there is no reliable way to detect Ebola risk through physical examination,” Grayson continued. “But there is another reliable manner to detect Ebola risk: looking at a visitor’s passport. Ebola is ravaging three countries: Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Because the virus is spread internationally only by human beings, blocking citizens of those countries effectively blocks the virus. And we already do a 100 percent check of passports, at every airport and border crossing into the U.S.
“Every visitor from these countries who harbors the virus, knowingly or unknowingly, is a potential weapon of mass destruction,” Grayson insisted. “Each one has the potential to infect innumerable Americans. Each one could cost us millions of dollars in medical care for the carrier, care for other victims, quarantine costs, decontamination costs and the cost of tracing and tracking all contacts. Each one raises the risk that Ebola will find an animal reservoir in the U.S., or mutate into something more infectious.And why should we run such risks?
“Let’s put this in perspective,” Grayson continued. “We already ban visitors from other countries unless they prove that they have been vaccinated against whooping cough — a far less deadly disease than Ebola. We don’t just ban visitors with whooping cough; we ban visitors unless they prove that they cannot get whooping cough. Suspending tourism from these three countries wouldn’t prevent relief efforts. On the contrary, the more we spend here, the less we can spend there. More than 25 other countries have instituted such travel restrictions. They are protected, while we are not. For now, we are like lab rats — except that all lab rats enjoy health coverage.
Closer to home, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., offered a warning that Miami International Airport (MIA) needs to focus on Ebola preparedness. Conceding that it is unlikely that travelers from West African nations impacted by Ebola will be traveling through South Florida, Ros-Lehtinen noted that travelers from Latin America, especially doctors from Cuba, could be a different story. To that end, Ros-Lehtinen wrote MIA Director Emilio Gonzalez this week, asking for more readiness efforts.
“Our community must be ready for any eventuality and that includes the possible spread of the Ebola virus from a Latin American country,” Ros-Lehtinen said on Thursday. “The Castro regime’s decision to send Cuban doctors in a thinly disguised propaganda attempt may put the region and South Florida at risk. MIA should have up-to-date equipment and plans to ensure that any Ebola outbreak is contained and managed in a professional manner to protect our community.”
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
