CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: Ebola Travel Bans

Interview

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BLACKWELL: Colorado Representative Diana DeGette joins us live this morning from Denver. Congresswoman, it's good to have you, this morning.

REP. DIANA DEGETTE, (D) COLORADO: Good morning, great to be with you.

BLACKWELL: Good to have you. On October 16th at a hearing when Dr. Frieden, head of the CDC, was on Capitol Hill, you said, I want to put it up on the screen, "The best way to stop Ebola is to stop this virus in Africa." Is that not the single best argument for a travel ban, fight it there so Americans don't have to fight it here?

DEGETTE: Well, the first thing we have to worry about is making sure our country is safe and then also stopping it in Africa. A travel ban, because we have now international travel all around the world, if we don't stop it in West Africa, what will happen is people will travel out of West Africa all around the world, to Europe, to South America, to Asia. And Ebola will start to spread all around the world. Eventually it will make itself here.

So what we have to make sure is that we -- we stop it there. You know, for every one infection now, eight people are being infected. So if we don't take a strong international effort then it will spread and there won't be anything we can do to stop it.

Now, I will say this --

BLACKWELL: What you are saying here, and I hate to interrupt, but before we move to the second point, which I will let you finish. It sounds like you are making the argument for a travel ban. I know from listening to your statements during the hearing that you are against a travel ban. But when you say we have it fight it there before people from West Africa travel all over, that is what's happening. That's why it's in Spain, that's why it's in the U.S. That's why it's in other parts of Europe, right?

DEGETTE: What I'm saying is that people will travel all over. It is a porous border. It's an international economy. But my point is in the week since the hearing that we have the CDC has now clarified its guidelines. They are requiring everybody coming in from those three countries to go to one of five airports where they will be screened and monitored. And they will be monitored for 21 days after they get here. I think that is a good idea.

We need to realize Ebola is not transmitted by air like the flu or something else. And so if somebody doesn't have a temperature or any of the other symptoms then they are not contagious. They are not going to make other people sick. It's a very fine balance. And I really rely on the public health officials both the CDC and the international health officials to find that very fine balance so we can get health workers into those countries to stop the spread of Ebola but at the same time protect our own borders.

So the issue has evolved a little bit since the hearing. It is nuanced. It's hard to fine that balance because we want to have doctors like our brave Dr. Spencer who went over to treat these patients. But then on the other hand when he comes home we need to make sure that Americans are safe too. So it is a tough call, but we really need to make sure we stop Ebola in West Africa. That is going to be the most effective prevention for U.S. citizens.

KOSIK: Congresswoman, the Obama administration says it's considering a mandatory quarantine for healthcare workers coming back from West Africa. New York and New Jersey, they have already imposed that. But should this have been done much sooner, and should it have been flushed out more, because there are a lot of questions, you know, where do you quarantine these people? One of them has been found negative, but is she still going to quarantined until to 21 days. There are a lot of particulars that don't seem to have been worked out yet.

DEGETTE: Right. There are a lot of particulars that haven't been worked out in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey about where you will house these people, what they will do. And so I rely on the public health officials.

I did tell the CDC, though, they need a bright line. And subsequently they said, OK, we're going to only let people come into these five airports. We're going to monitor them every day. But I think we need a clear test. And again, we need to realize that people who don't have any symptoms, a fever or other symptoms, they are not contagious. They are not going to infect other people. And so it's a fine balance between getting our people to go over and help treat these Ebola patients. And they are very courageous to go on the front lines like that. And then also making sure that we protect public health. So I don't think we should overreact, but I do think we are going to have a clear test so that people know what to expect.

BLACKWELL: Congresswoman, before we wrap up I want to get this in. You said also before the hearing that America is not a fortress and that the -- it would be unreasonable to have this travel ban from people coming from Sierra Leone and Liberia and Guinea. But you know three countries that do have travel bans, they have closed their borders -- Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. If they are willing and subscribed to this idea of closing the borders and travel bans to protect their people, why shouldn't the U.S. do the same?

DEGETTE: Well, what I'm saying is people will leave these three countries. They will go other places. And they will make their way to the United States. We don't have any nonstop flights from these countries to the United States. Everybody who leaves them flies through someplace else. And so you are not going to be able -- we shouldn't delude ourselves to think we're going to be safe if we're having a travel ban. But what we will be doing is stopping aid workers from coming in and out and preventing the disease there. And so I think we need to have strong requirements on people traveling, but we need to be careful we don't stop aid workers from going in there.

BLACKWELL: All right, Congresswoman Diana DeGette, thank you for being part of the conversation this morning.

DEGETTE: Thank you.

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