- President rejects calls for west Africa travel ban
- Oxfam warns disease could become ‘the disaster of our time’
- Kerry: Ebola could become ‘scourge like HIV or polio’
President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Americans not to succumb to hysteria about Ebola, even as he warned that addressing the deadly virus would require citizens, government leaders and the media to all pitch in.
On Friday, the secretary of state, John Kerry, used a speech at the state department to say Ebola could become “a scourge like HIV or polio, that we will end up fighting, all of us, for decades” and the president of Liberia, one of the three west African countries most affected by the outbreak, reportedly telephoned the mayor of Dallas to apologise for the arrival of the disease in his city via one of her citizens.
In Britain on Saturday, the charity Oxfam warned that more must be done to prevent Ebola becoming “the disaster of our time”.
In his weekly address, Obama also pushed back against calls for the US to institute a travel ban. Lawmakers have called it a commonsense step to prevent more people with Ebola from entering the US, but Obama said such a ban would only hamper aid efforts and screening measures.
“Trying to seal off an entire region of the world – if that were even possible – could actually make the situation worse,” the president said.
Growing US concern about Ebola and the three cases diagnosed so far in Dallas prompted Obama on Friday to tap a former top White House adviser to be his point person on Ebola. Striking a careful balance, Obama said there was no “outbreak” or “epidemic” of Ebola in the US, but said even one case was too many.
“This is a serious disease, but we can’t give in to hysteria or fear – because that only makes it harder to get people the accurate information they need,” Obama said. “We have to be guided by the science.”
As Obama sought to reassure anxious Americans, US officials were still working to contain the fallout from the Ebola cases identified in the US so far, rushing to cut off potential routes of infection for those who may have come into contact with individuals who contracted Ebola.
Obama said he was “absolutely confident” the US could prevent a serious outbreak at home – if it continues to elevate facts over fear.
“Fighting this disease will take time,” Obama said. “Before this is over, we may see more isolated cases here in America. But we know how to wage this fight.”