Ban the Flights! Which Flights? How?

That guy from Liberia who died from Ebola in Dallas – patient zero, right? Well, so far, there have been only two cases of disease transmittal, and they were both his nurses. The 21 day quarantine is over for everyone else who came into contact with him, and no one else contracted the disease.  There are, therefore, two (2) cases of new-onset Ebola in the US in its history, and everyone is freaking the hell out.  

That’s fewer people than have been married to Rush Limbaugh. 

None of this has stopped craven politicians and their ignorant media enablers from demanding an as-yet undefined travel ban. 

Rob Astorino thinks that the governor of New York can ban international travel? Under what legal authority? Wouldn’t this be something to be decided in Washington, or by the carriers themselves? How would the governor of New York gain access to the passenger manifests that federal agencies maintain? Would the governor demand to place State Police alongside customs or immigration agents at JFK – the only airport in the state with regularly scheduled transatlantic flights? Under what authority? Are we banning an entire Delta flight because one passenger connected in Paris from a west African nation? 

While the WHO declared Nigeria (a west African country) “Ebola-free” yesterday, most of the Ebola outbreak in that part of the world has been in the countries of Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. It might surprise you to learn that there are no flights to the US – no flights to JFK – from any of those three countries. The only regularly scheduled flights to the US from that region originate in Ebola-free Senegal, Ghana, and Ebola-free Nigeria. 

As this study by Five Thirty Eight shows, the stricken countries have very few flights through Europe – only 18 weekly flights connect Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone and half of those aren’t operating – so 9 weekly flights that could connect to flights to the US. 

Rob Astorino and other hysteria whores want to ban individual travel between JFK and as-yet-unnamed west African countries, but there’s no state-level authority for that, it wouldn’t work, and it would cost untold money and resources to do the requisite monitoring and banning of flights, and for nothing. If Nigeria can contain its Ebola outbreak, I’m pretty sure the United States  can, too. 

 

18 comments

  • This Ebola freak out is nothing more than a testament to the ignorance of so many in this supposedly learned nation……..and the “soup” man needs to pack it in cause he is going nowhere…..

    • At least Gov. Cuomo understands that it’s a Federal decision, not the Governor’s.

    • As set forth above, a “travel ban” is big government nonsense at its most wasteful and acute. There are no direct flights from the most affected countries, and the travelers coming from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea are likely to connect through Western Europe on one of the 9 weekly flights from any of them. The notion of a “travel ban” is not a medical solution, but a wholly political piece of needless pandering.

      But yeah, at least Cuomo knows that it’s not within his authority to do.

  • Glad to see Asstorino is Weppnerizing his message to penetrate the darker recesses of Teabagtarianism. Eternal vigilance against infected poors is the price of freedom.

  • It’s infuriating that we drag the guy from the CDC from a real fire to sit before those zombies in Congress. Yes, he made mistakes. Can we get through the crisis before we have to pick it a part? It’s also infuriating that these bozos who could not sell used cars and thus became congress critters, can hogtie the nation with their nonsensical rhetoric — because there is not a “news” producer anywhere who can call BULL$HIT on these ass hats. There is no news anymore. There is just b@t$hit crazy talk that drives more viewers.

    • “Crisis?” What friggin’ crisis? One guy is dead, two of his health care workers got it and anyone else who potentially came in contact with him and his fluids is past the 21st day.
      Christ, I infect more people clearing my throat into the front row at Bally’s.

  • Just in – flights from West Africa will only be allowed to land at one of five U.S. airports.

  • You guys are missing the REAL message here from Bobby A. By blocking international flights to JFK, he can put Westchester County Airport into the forefront and finally transform it from the present-day 2nd-choice strip for bizjets into the leading international gateway he knows it can be. All he needs is billions in federal funding and a few “honest” vowel-ending contractors to get construction moving and put the good people of NY back to work.

    The man is a visionary.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.