Talks Turn To Minimizing Ebola Threat To South Florida
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - How best to handle the threat Ebola poses to South Florida has been the topic of conversation among politicians, health officials and emergency personnel over the last several days.
On Wednesday the White House announced five airports would start screening travelers coming from Liberia, Sierra Leon and Guinea. The airports are New York's JFK, Newark in New Jersey, Dulles in Washington D.C., Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta and Chicago's O'Hare airport.
According to the White House, those five airports are the destination of 94-percent of individuals who travel to the U.S. from the three countries that are currently heavily affected by Ebola right now.
Florida's U.S. Senator Bill Nelson thinks more should be done.
"When you realize when you get the virus you have a 50-50 chance of living or dying, I don't like those odds," Senator Nelson told CBS4's Natalia Zea.
Senator Nelson makes no bones about the fact that he is worried about Ebola potentially heading to the U.S. He has requested the Department of State to temporarily stop issuing travel visas to and from the West African countries where Ebola is spreading, except for humanitarian, medical and military operations.
"We're sending the United States military over to Africa, they're going to set up a hospital, they're going to try to contain it where it is raging. But we have to contain it from spreading into the US," said Nelson.
CLICK HERE To Watch Natalia Zea's Report
Nelson said that first responders in our airports are well trained but more needs to be done.
"I'm suggesting an additional step which is to lessen the number of people coming in from those infected countries, where it is out of control in those countries. It's raging, the disease," said Nelson.
Miami International Airport officials, along with representatives from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Centers for Disease Control, met behind closed doors on Wednesday to discuss different scenarios in which Ebola, and other potentially deadly diseases, could be brought in and strategies to minimize the impact. A similar meeting was held by members of the Miami-Dade Emergency Operations Center and county health officials.
MIA is taking the pro-active step of giving all county employees working at the airport EBOLA information cards.
Plans are being made for a table top training exercise involving an Ebola situation. In the coming months, there are plans to hold a second live drill involving a jetliner.
"We don't want people to panic, we want to arm them with the best plan and best information to make sure we can deal with whatever lands here at the airport," said Gonzalez.
The airport is also reviewing its infectious disease emergency plan and updating it with the latest on Ebola.
"There is no reason to panic," said Airport Director Emilio Gonzalez. "This is the perfect time to get prepared."
Gonzalez has held a series of meetings and conference calls in the last 48 hours with Federal Health and Law Enforcement to fine tune plans. "We want to flip the switch and stuff starts happening.
We don't want people standing around saying what do I do now."
The plan that's being updated covers everything from where to park a quarantined jetliner, to how it will be cleaned. It even discussed whether to use portable stairs or connect a jetway to deplane passengers on a flight with reported health issues.
"You have to train like you fight and fighting Ebola is a serious business," said Gonzalez.
Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport held its own meetings Thursday on Ebola. A meeting was on the calendar for midday Thursday at the Airport's Emergency Operations Center in Terminal Three.
Broward Aviation Officials were scheduled to attend, along with members of the CDC and the Florida Department of Health.
RELATED CONTENT:
