Aaron Blake misleads about Ebola restrictions | a Twitter conversation

 

Aaron Blake misleads about Ebola restrictions

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post offers "Americans want flight restrictions from Ebola countries. And it’s not close" about a new WaPo/ABC poll.

Previously the WaPo has attempted to mislead about a complete travel ban with West Africa (which few probably want) and lesser travel restrictions. Other sources that have similarly misled include the CDC, the WHO, and the NY Daily News. All have made a strawman argument: arguing against a complete travel ban yet ignoring lesser travel restrictions.

The title of Aaron Blake's post gave hope that the WaPo had dropped that propaganda effort, yet such is not the case. Even though one of the poll questions was "In dealing with the Ebola outbreak, would you support or oppose restricting entry to the United States by people who have been in affected countries?", Blake says this:

"Thus far, some countries in Europe have restricted flights from these countries in West Africa, and an increasing number of U.S. lawmakers are calling for similar bans. The White House has yet to increase restrictions, with federal officials saying such a move could actually increase the spread of the disease by hampering the movement of aid workers and supplies."

Travel restrictions - such as only allowing a limited number of people to come here if they'd traveled to West Africa, and putting them in quarantine - are not the same as a "ban". Under travel restrictions, aid workers and supplies could still be sent to Liberia and other countries, perhaps by U.S. military transport. However, we wouldn't just let anyone enter the U.S. from West Africa as is currently the case.

The best thing for Aaron Blake to do is to update his post to point out that a travel ban and travel restrictions are not the same thing.
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