CDC Director on Coronavirus: ‘Real Threat’ to U.S. Is Travel from Europe

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield says the “real threat” to the United States, in terms of stopping the spread of the coronavirus, is travel from Europe, as no new travel bans have been issued by the White House.

During a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing, Redfield told lawmakers that Europe, not China, is the largest threat at the moment in terms of the coronavirus increasingly spreading to the U.S.

“Clearly China is got control of their outbreak. They had 20 cases in the last 24 hours,” Redfield said. “Where our real threat [is] right now is Europe. That’s where the cases are coming in from. So in a way, if you want to just be blunt, Europe is the new China.”

The remarks come as President Trump’s administration has yet to issue any new travel bans outside of the existing ones for China and Iran, though the State Department has declared a “Level 3” travel warning for Italy and South Korea.

Despite Italy’s nationwide quarantine, daily flights from Milan, Italy — the most coronavirus-affected region of the nation — to the U.S. have largely continued with little to no changes, as Breitbart News has reported.

Daily Flights Continue to U.S. from Coronavirus-Quarantined Italyhttps://t.co/iBjwmgR69L

— John Binder 👽 (@JxhnBinder) March 10, 2020

Currently, flights listed on the travel website Kayak.com show flights from airports out of Milan and surrounding areas to roughly every major U.S. city, including Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, California, Los Angeles, California, Dallas, Texas, Minneapolis, Minnesota, New York City, New York, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, Houston, Texas, Charlotte, North Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, Boston, Massachusetts, Detroit, Michigan, Miami, Florida, and Little Rock, Arkansas.

While Trump has placed a travel ban on Iran, Italy has surpassed Iran in terms of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths from the virus. Today, there are close to 12,500 confirmed coronavirus cases in Italy and 827 deaths. Iran has nearly 20 million more residents than Italy.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said Trump’s travel bans on China and Iran have been instrumental in stopping the spread of the coronavirus.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.