"It may, in fact, help America but it will make the situation in West Africa ... a whole lot worse"

STEIN: The nexus of the problem with Ebola is not in America it’s in West Africa. And until you get the situation in West Africa under control we will never be actually out of the woods with respect to Ebola. So when you look at a travel ban you have to look at it holistically. What does it mean not just for America but for West Africa? Basically every health official–maybe with a few exceptions–has said that if you do a travel ban it may, in fact, help America but it will make the situation in West Africa a whole lot more complex and a whole lot worse. People will panic —

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SCARBOROUGH: — Sam —

STEIN: Hold on, let me finish. If you do a travel ban in that country people in that country will panic. There will be political panic, there will be social panic. In addition people in that country will still try to get out of that country even though there’s a travel ban. You can’t prevent them from trying to get out of the country even if do you have a travel ban. Then it becomes a question of okay, let’s say somebody with Ebola did try to get out of that country and they did go to Europe and yeah we stopped them in Europe from going to the United States. We still then have to trace who their contacts were up to that point and if you have a travel ban, if they were going underground it becomes a lot harder to trace their contacts. So yes, you might help the situation in America but the situation in West Africa is exacerbated and made worse. That’s the point.

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