10/29/2014
The average mind may seize up like a motor without oil when faced with some of the insanely stupid policies put forward by the administration. The most expensive and nonsensical in a while is the proposal to bring highly infective Ebola patients from Africa to be treated in the United States. It’s actually against the law to grant a visa to an infectious non-citizen into the country, but the administration is unconcerned with protecting America’s public health.You really cannot make this stuff up: there’s a deadly plague, so let’s bring it to America.
In the Fox News clip following, reporter Adam Housley remarked about the high level of officials who are planning to import Ebola:
This State Department memo has seen by Nancy Powell, the ambassador to India. She is leading Ebola coalition for the Department of State. Also seen potentially by Pat Kennedy Undersecretary for Management you might remember the name from some of the Benghazi decision that were made. It’s basically been cleared by the highest levels of the State Department. So when we hear in briefings that there has been no plan as far as the State Department knows they may not be telling the truth or may not be communicating with each other. This apparently has been seen at some of the highest levels.Also in the video, former UN Ambassador John Bolton remarked, “This is about the worst idea dealing with Ebola I can think of.” Greta van Susteren found the proposed policy “so profoundly stupid.”
What was the point of sending US troops to Africa to build medical facilities if the crazed politicians in Washington planned to grab patients and bring them to the US for treatment? The soldiers are being endangered for foolish political do-goodery and will have to be quarantined upon their return. Why is this America’s job anyway? Where is the United Nations?
Americans are not confident about how the government is handling the ebola crisis. An Associated Press-GfK poll from last week found plenty of mistrust. For example, only one in five approve of the CDC’s work on the disease.
And apart from the danger of spreading disease, what about the cost to taxpayers at a time when healthcare for Americans is becoming more expensive and harder to find? Ebola Tom Duncan (pictured) cost the taxpayers $500,000 for nine days of intense medical care.
What’s the plan here? Some of the talk has been about NGO people, medics — that sort — being the persons to be rescued, but not including the poorest Africans will bring charges of racism, so lots of them will have to be part of the mix.
Will the Africans who recover be allowed to remain as immigrants? Will there be an Ebola Visa, courtesy of President Obama?
The Washington Times has more details:
State Department plans to bring foreign Ebola patients to U.S., Washington Times, by Stephen Dinan, October 28, 2014The State Department has quietly made plans to bring Ebola-infected doctors and medical aides to the U.S. for treatment, according to an internal department document that argued the only way to get other countries to send medical teams to West Africa is to promise that the U.S. will be the world’s medical backstop.
Some countries “are implicitly or explicitly waiting for medevac assurances” before they will agree to send their own medical teams to join U.S. and U.N. aid workers on the ground, the State Department argues in the undated four-page memo, which was reviewed by The Washington Times.
“The United States needs to show leadership and act as we are asking others to act by admitting certain non-citizens into the country for medical treatment for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) during the Ebola crisis,” says the four-page memo, which lists as its author Robert Sorenson, deputy director of the office of international health and biodefense.
More than 10,000 people have become infected with Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and the U.S. has taken a lead role in arguing that the outbreak must be stopped in West Africa. President Obama has committed thousands of U.S. troops and has deployed American medical personnel, but other countries have been slow to follow.
In the memo, officials say their preference is for patients go to Europe, but there are some cases in which the U.S. is “the logical treatment destination for non-citizens.”
The document has been shared with Congress, where lawmakers already are nervous about the administration’s handling of the Ebola outbreak. The memo even details the expected price per patient, with transportation costs at $200,000 and treatment at $300,000 per case.
A State Department official signaled Tuesday evening that the discussions had been shelved.
“There is no policy of the U.S. government to allow entry of non-U.S. citizen Ebola-infected to the United States. There is no consideration in the State Department of changing that policy,” the official said.
Another department official said they are, though, considering using American aircraft equipped to handle Ebola cases to transport non-citizens to other countries.
“We have discussed allowing other countries to use our medevac capabilities to evacuate their own citizens to their home countries or third-countries, subject to reimbursement and availability,” the second department official said.
The internal State Department memo is described as “sensitive but unclassified.” A tracking sheet attached to it says it was cleared by offices of the deputy secretary, the deputy secretary for management, the office of Central African affairs and the medical services office.
A call to the number listed for Mr. Sorenson wasn’t returned Tuesday.
Mr. Obama has been clear about his desire to recruit medical and aid workers to fight Ebola in Africa.
“We know that the best way to protect Americans ultimately is going to stop this outbreak at the source,” the president said at the White House on Tuesday, praising U.S. aid workers who are already involved in the effort. “No other nation is doing as much to make sure that we contain and ultimately eliminate this outbreak than America.”
About half of the more than 10,000 cases in West Africa have been fatal.
Four cases have been diagnosed in the U.S., and three of those were health care workers treating infected patients. Two of those, both nurses at a Dallas hospital, have been cured.
Several American aid workers who contracted the disease overseas were flown to the U.S. for treatment.
The United Nations and World Health Organization are also heavily involved in deploying to the affected region, but other countries have been slower to provide resources to fight Ebola in West Africa or to agree to treat workers who contract the disease.
The State Department memo says only Germany has agreed to take non-German citizens who contract Ebola.
European nations are closer to West Africa, making transport easier, the State Department memo said.
Officials said the U.S. is the right place to treat some cases, notably those in which non-Americans are contracted to work in West Africa for U.S.-based charities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“So far all of the Ebola medevacs brought back to U.S. hospitals have been U.S. citizens. But there are many non-citizens working for U.S. government agencies and organizations in the Ebola-affected countries of West Africa,” the memo says. “Many of them are citizens of countries lacking adequate medical care, and if they contracted Ebola in the course of their work they would need to be evacuated to medical facilities in the United States or Europe.”
The memo says the State Department has a contract with Phoenix Aviation, which maintains an airplane capable of transporting an Ebola patient. The U.S. can transport noncitizens and have other countries or organizations pay the cost.
The U.S. has helped transport three health care workers to Germany and one to France.
In the U.S., the department memo lists three hospitals — the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Emory University Hospital in Atlanta — that are willing to take Ebola patients.
According to the memo, Homeland Security Department officials would be required to waive legal restrictions to speed the transport of patients into the U.S.
“A pre-established framework would be essential to guarantee that only authorized individuals would be considered for travel authorization and that all necessary vetting would occur,” the memo says.
A Homeland Security spokeswoman didn’t return emails seeking comment.
Judicial Watch, a conservative-leaning public interest watchdog, revealed the existence of a State Department plan this month. When The Times described the document to Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch’s president, he said it is evidence of why the administration balked at adopting a travel ban on those from affected countries.
“Under this theory, there could be people moving here now, transporting people here now, and it could be done with no warning,” Mr. Fitton said. “If our borders mean anything, it is the ability to make sure that dire threats to the public health are kept out.”
After those initial reports surfaced, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, sent a letter asking for answers. On Tuesday, he said the document The Times obtained “raises more concerns and questions than answers.”
“President Obama should be forthcoming with the American people about the scope of his plan to bring non-U.S. citizens infected with Ebola to the United States for treatment,” Mr. Goodlatte said in a statement.
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