Degette: ‘Nobody Should Delude Themselves’ Thinking a Travel Ban Will Help

"The bottom line is, we have to control the spread of Ebola in West Africa.The World Health Organization estimates that if we don’t, 1.2 million people might get this disease in the next year or so. And if that happens, travel bans aren’t going to stop infected individuals from going around the world, including to the U.S..So the first thing that needs to happen is the international community really needs to focus on Africa.

Some people have said that travel bans could make it harder to detect people from Ebola going around. And so I think both Dr. Frieden and the president have said that if a travel ban could work, they wouldn’t be adverse to it. But nobody should delude themselves thinking that a travel ban will solve this problem. If we don’t deal with issues in West Africa, Ebola will be coming to the U.S. as well as every place else in the world.”