World moves to cut off West Africa as Ebola panic intensifies
Geoffrey York
TheGlobeAndMail.com
Aug. 14 2014
Millions of ordinary Africans, facing panicky quarantine orders and cancelled flights, are beginning to pay a heavy price for the world’s alarmist myths about the Ebola crisis.
Far from the centre of the Ebola outbreak, airlines and governments are imposing restrictions on African travellers, ignoring the advice of medical experts. Korean Air Lines became the latest example on Thursday, suspending all of its flights to Kenya, a country that doesn’t have a single Ebola case and is located 5,000 kilometres from the danger zone.
Other fear-based reactions are multiplying. Nigerian athletes were placed into quarantine at the Summer Youth Olympic Games in China, prompting them to quit in protest. Ghana is proposing a ban on all “public gatherings.” Zambia is banning entry to anyone from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria, the four West African nations where Ebola is present. British Airways and Emirates have suspended flights to some West African cities, and Ivory Coast is blocking ship cargo to the three hardest-hit countries, raising fears of food and fuel shortages.
The heavy-handed travel bans are provoking sharp criticism from experts at the World Health Organization and Médecins sans frontières (Doctors Without Borders). The flight cancellations are an overreaction that could make the situation worse, hindering the efforts to help Ebola-affected regions, the WHO says.
“WHO disappointed when airlines stop flying to West Africa,” the organization said in a tweet on Thursday. “Hard to save lives if we & other health workers cannot get in.”
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