Doctor & Director Of Biomedical Research Lab: 'Quarantine Is The Answer' To Ebola
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Chris Stigall talked with Dr. Charles Bailey, the Executive Director of George Mason University's Biomedical Research Laboratory, on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the threat of Ebola and how to stop it from becoming an epidemic.
Bailey said it still needs to be determined whether or not Ebola can be spread similarly to the flu.
"We don't know for sure that coughing or sneezing cannot spread the virus. We don't know absolutely that it can, but I am very suspicious, as well as many other scientists [are], that it could be a means of transmitting."
He disagreed with the federal government's decision not to institute some type of flight restrictions from the West African nations where the virus originated.
"We should've instituted a travel ban, not necessarily ban all flights from coming back, but certainly ban anyone with credentials, passports or visas coming from that part of Africa. There's other ways, plenty of other ways, of getting people and supplies into the endemic area other than commercial airlines. In my opinion, the first order of business is stop any possibility, if at all possible, of importing the disease into an endemic area like the U.S."
Bailey stated that the best way to prevent an outbreak right now is to quarantine anyone that may have been exposed to contamination.
"I really believe if we get [our] quarantine act together and start concentrating the cases in two or three locations where they are extremely well trained, like the facility in Nebraska, like the facility at Emory. Those people are well trained. They know how to take their protective gear off after it's contaminated. Quarantine is the answer. It absolutely is."