Ebola: What the U.S. can learn from the Africans [UPDATED]

My friend Craig Harrison recently traveled in Southern Africa, where he found the Ebola “protocols” superior to those of the United States. Today, the Los Angeles Times’ editors published the following letter from Craig:

To the editor: I spent most of September in Southern Africa and, unlike the United States, the three nations I visited are taking the threat of Ebola seriously.

All arriving passengers in Johannesburg are scanned by an infrared device to detect fevers. In Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, I was asked whether I had been to West Africa and was given a brochure on Ebola. At the Botswana border, a team of white-coated health professionals quizzed each arriving passenger.

While these measures are no doubt imperfect, why is a government run by the thuggish Robert Mugabe more vigilant than President Obama and our Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? Why not quarantine, at least temporarily, those coming from the infected region as a precautionary measure?

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

UPDATE:
In an email to me, Craig adds:

To my mind the Obama administration’s handling of this issue is worse than Hurricane Katrina. With Ebola the entire nation is at risk.

There really were plagues in Europe that killed 30+ percent of the people. The global warming crowd is always prattling on about the “Precautionary Principle.” How about some health precautions, just to be safe. Why roll the dice?

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