Travel Lobby Praises Obama for Not Instituting Full Ebola Travel Ban

The travel lobby praised the Obama administration this week for not instituting a full Ebola travel ban. 

After the Obama administration announced a limited travel ban on those from West Africa, limiting those travelers to five airports where they could be screened, U.S. Travel Association President Roger Dow lauded the Obama administration for not implementing a full travel ban that he claimed would be an “overreaction.”

African nations have been containing Ebola by instituting travel bans and border closures, and an NPR/Truven Health Analytics poll found that 77% of Americans want an Ebola travel ban. President Barack Obama has claimed that instituting a full travel ban will not keep Americans safe. 

Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian immigrant who died after becoming the first person on American soil to be diagnosed with Ebola and infecting at least two nurses, reportedly knew he may have contracted Ebola and came to America on a questionable visa in what may have ben a desperate attempt to save his life. Since Duncan was asymptomatic, he was allowed to fly from West Africa to Texas after a layover in Dulles Airport in the D.C. region. After the Obama administration started to screen passengers at U.S. airports, “four passengers who flew into Dulles… were taken to a local hospital after enhanced airport screening alarmed the Centers for Disease Control,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.