acrylicsaga

Delta has partnership service from Monrovia to JFK with Kenya Airways:

http://news.delta.com/index.php?s=20295&item=124555

Departs Monrovia 6pm and arrives JFK 5:13am the following day.

So maybe ROB - ACC - JFK - DFW

Maybe a switch to American at JFK?

stuck@slvr

There are only 2 airlines that currently fly out of ROB on Fridays due to the Ebola outbreak....It was either Brussels Flight 241 (SN241) ROB-BRU or Royal Air Morac ROB-CMN (Casablanca), but news reports say Brussels so that kind of rules out Royal Air Morac.

But from Brussels to DFW??? Who knows...Brussels to JFK...Brussels to DFW...

Edit: if the IAD connection is true, then assume SN 515 BRU-IAD leaving 16:15 local time…or if he had a shorter layover, then UA 951 BRU-IAD leaving at 12:00 local time.

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You want to go where?

Seeing that someone above suggested IAD, it makes sense that the traveler remained on SN through Washington. SN is competitive to Africa generally (and with ROB there is little else).

My own thought, though, is that it doesn't really matter. Publicizing the airline will only make thousands of travelers panic over nothing, because they once flew that airline 5 years ago. Let the CDC do its job. If it is one thing they are good at, it is identifying and contacting people who may potentially been exposed.

MSPeconomist

There are reports that the patient connected through BRU....and everyone in Brussels is at risk according to some reporters.

You want to go where?

Exactly why they shouldn't publicize the route. To some extent, with transcontinental air travel, almost everyone in the world is at risk, although that risk is negligible. Many news organizations make money by selling potential disaster around every corner.

While Ebola is a serious disease with devastating consequences, hysteria is also a serious disease with potentially devastating consequences as well.

emma69

What would be interesting, is if the CDC are also contacting the people who sat in his seat / row on the aircraft on it's next flight(s). The virus can live for hours on hard surfaces (e.g. tray table) and be transmitted that way. Hopefully unlikely, but I just know how I have seen kids handsy on tray tables, then have their hands in their mouths, or adults dropping food on the tray and then eating it etc.

FLLDL

I'm in favor of transparency. Public health authorities are no doubt contacting the passengers on his flights, so not like this will be kept secret anyhow.

Seems counterproductive to repeatedly reassure the public on the one hand that everything is fine, while the other hand is being unnecessarily opaque with the details.

The lack of transparency during SARS greatly worsened the epidemic, not sure why US public health officials are taking a page from the PRC's playbook in this case.

Fortunately the man's flight itinerary is likely known by numerous public health authorities around the world at this point so a more detailed leak of information is inevitable.

Ber2dca

If the Belgians continue running flights down there, this was basically inevitable and a matter of time only.

You want to go where?

You have a point. As I think about it more, the media are more likely to build hysteria out of the opacity. After all, hysteria sells news.

bhrubin

Since the victim wasn't contagious before boarding in Liberia, and didn't become sick (which is when one becomes contagious with ebola) until several days after arriving in Dallas, I'm not sure what difference it makes to us as to which flights he was on.

(Obviously, it makes a difference to the CDC as they contact all passengers on those flights to ensure they show no symptoms, but the chance of that would be virtually nil knowing he didn't become contagious until after his Dallas arrival.)

The media has to report about this, because it is a story of national interest, whether we want to admit that or not. That the media blows this out of proportion and ignores details that should leave us all feeling much safer, of course, is another story. That's just media being media to get ratings. Remember, folks, it's all about the money.

The media HAS been pretty good at educating the American public that transmission of ebola is actually pretty difficult. Ebola seemed a much scarier proposition to most before this incident, I suspect, because so many more people assumed it was easily transmitted.

The American public ALWAYS overreacts to that which they don't understand, and the American public's ignorance is extensive. No one should be surprised to the overreaction that likely will be coming.

I am actually flying to Rwanda, Madagascar, and South Africa in December, and I can't recount how many times I've been asked if I'm apprehensive because of ebola--even though the ebola danger zone is closer to Europe than anywhere I'll be in Africa. Americans are for the most part geographically clueless and hysterical to anything that has any potential, no matter how remote, to affect the presumed tranquility of their security. It would be hilarious if it weren't so dangerous. Just ask ISIS and Iraq.

Sant

If they didn't, how would folks get there to fight the outbreak?

Indelaware

One does realize that FNA is not in Liberia, but in Sierra Leone, doesn't one?.

Seems quite odd that a person would travel from Liberia to Freetown to catch a flight considering the added cost and time to do so. The only commercial services ex-FNA are operated by AT and SN, both of which operate nonstop out of ROB.

FoggyBridges

As I live in Dallas, and got back from Kenya on Sunday I have gotten a slew of inquiries from coworkers, friends and family- all of whom are convinced I have Ebola.
My response is always "Just because I went to Africa does not mean I went to West Africa. Would you be concerned if there was a disease in California and I was travelling to NY?"

Most are still convinced I have Ebola.

bhrubin

I know it. You can't argue with stupid...or ignorant. Chalk it up to life and accept it. And educate as many as you can. :-)

Ber2dca

Chartered flights? I doubt all that promised aid personnel is meant to fly commercial down there.