Florida Officials Demand Preparation Against Ebola Outbreak

After reports emerged that a health-care worker was infected with the Ebola virus in Dallas, Florida officials, including a political odd couple, urged action at the federal and state level to prepare in case an outbreak occurs. 

A nurse in Dallas was infected with Ebola while aiding Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Duncan died of Ebola last week.

On Sunday afternoon, Gov. Rick Scott asked Florida hospitals to launch mandatory training for health-care workers on the disease.

“In light of what happened in Dallas, we want to make sure those health-care professionals on the front lines have the training and equipment they need to protect their health and safety,” Scott said. “We are asking every Florida hospital to mandate that all health-care professionals undergo Ebola preparedness training to ensure knowledge of protocols and availability of necessary personal protective equipment. It is very important for Florida hospitals to have the protective gear recommended by the CDC to ensure our health-care professionals are safe in the event we ever have a case of Ebola in Florida.

“We’re asking Florida hospitals to notify the Department of Health when their personnel have undergone the mandatory training programs,” Scott added. “In Florida, we are continuing to hope for the best while we prepare for the worst and learn from the developments in Dallas to further improve our own preparedness efforts.”  

Two Florida congressmen from opposite ends of the political spectrum -- conservative Republican Ted Yoho and liberal Democrat Alan Grayson -- teamed up at the end of last week to urge President Barack Obama to take immediate action by placing travel restrictions on impacted African nations, beefing up airport screenings and imposing quarantines on travelers who have recently been in impacted countries. Also last week, Yoho and Grayson signed off on another letter demanding a temporary travel ban on impacted nations in West Africa.

"With a global health epidemic like Ebola raging, we must do all we can to protect our country from infection while aiding in the effort to combat this deadly disease,” Yoho said last week. “We should not wait for the World Health Organization (WHO) to tell us that the situation is serious enough to restrict air travel. Taking necessary action to protect our citizens is paramount and is the sole responsibility of the United States government, not the U.N. or the WHO.”

“Since there is no effective means to identify asymptomatic travelers who harbor the disease, often unknowingly, only a temporary travel ban on the citizens of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea can prevent the further spread of Ebola to the United States,” said Grayson. “Such a travel ban in no way inhibits our efforts to provide humanitarian aid to those countries.”

While Obama met with administration officials on Monday on how to handle the Ebola crisis, the White House has pushed back against travel bans on African nations. Breitbart reported on Monday that a petition to the White House supporting travel bans is gaining momentum with more than 22,000 signatures so far.


Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN