bocastephen

Now I've been on the record for about 10 years at FT rallying against security nonsense, but as someone with a MD FACS spouse, I see the other side of this equation. The risk to Africa right now is over 1MM people dead - maybe more.

There is already concern in the medical community that the virus has mutated and can infect via the air in confined spaces without direct contact with a carrier's bodily fluids - I am not sure if this was reported in the news yet, but this news is making its way through the medical community, if not the general news. Another mutation could occur at any time - and better that mutation occur far away from North American soil.

The main risk here from the perspective of the medical community is allowing things to get out of hand due to mistakes. The guy who just died in Texas from Ebola had a broad contact matrix while infected - because the hospital made critical mistakes in diagnosing him. If these types of mistakes continue to occur on a frequent basis, all of a sudden we have a big problem - if not a significant number of infected or exposed people, then certainly a public panic.

While screening for Ebola upon arrival might seem silly, the checks are (as I understand it) restricted to passengers arriving from specific impacted regions, and the checks add another layer of protection which will help minimize the impact of clinical mistakes which are almost guaranteed to occur and lead to increased risk.

If this thing gets out of hand over here, the death toll might pale in comparison to influenza, but the public panic and government knee-jerk reactions will cause far more pain than the disease itself, and that is pain I'd rather avoid. If someone is stupid enough to travel to West Africa right now with this thing spreading like wildfire, a cursory check upon arrival here is reasonable.