The Trump administration didn’t want Americans with Ebola, they sent them to Berlin, Prague

White House spokesman Kush Desai denied that the administration was unwilling to approve Stafford and attacked the Post. “This is false and another reason why the Washington Post should no longer own the paper they were published in,” Desai wrote in an email. He said the Trump administration’s priority is to ensure the health and safety of citizens and praised the German hospital that supports Stafford.

The US has several centers and hospitals with special equipment that can provide safe, high-quality care for Ebola patients.

In a press release on Wednesday afternoon, Pillai repeatedly answered questions about the US refusal to allow Americans with Ebola to return home for treatment and care. He also failed to explain how Germany and the Czech Republic—not known for their ability to deal with Ebola—were chosen to take care of the Americans, or if other countries were asked to take them in and refused.

At one point, when asked directly if the White House made a decision to reject the Americans, Pillai replied: “Right now, what I can say is that the plans for these people who migrated were made based on the situation, the need to mobilize quickly – as you know, this was very fast that happened over the weekend.

Travel restrictions

In addition to sending Americans elsewhere for treatment and surveillance, the US introduced travel restrictions related to the Ebola outbreak. Americans returning from the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan will undergo a health screening, while non-US citizens who have traveled to those countries in the past 21 days will be denied entry.

In word tuesday, The African CDC responded to the restrictions, saying “the outlook is clear: travel restrictions and border closures are not the solution to the outbreak.” Such measures can create fear, waste resources, hinder transparency, disrupt humanitarian and health services, and divert to illegal and unsupervised practices – which can increase health risks rather than reduce them.

Jean Kaseya, director of the CDC for Africa, added: “The fastest way to protect all countries in the world is to actively support epidemic control.