The death of Thomas Duncan in Dallas from the Ebola virus is a sobering reminder that we live in a world more connected and fluid than at any time in human history. The Ebola virus and other deadly pathogens can accompany people from one point on the globe to another in a matter of hours — and attempts to identify and stop carriers of the disease won’t always work. Viruses and bacteria do not stop at passport control.

This does not mean that the United States or other nations should be nonchalant about screening for Ebola. Checks at airports, such as procedures announced last Wednesday for inbound passengers to five U.S. airports, still can prove valuable. But it’s important to understand the biological realities. Ebola can incubate in a human for up to 21 days, and the infected person does not immediately show symptoms. As Duncan demonstrated, an infected person can go through multiple screenings without setting off alarms, and questionnaires don’t always single out those who either don’t know they are infected or deliberately won’t say.

The hue and cry in recent days by some Republicans to shut the border to people from West Africa is misplaced. Such extreme measures won’t stop Ebola infections from spreading outside of Africa and may cause serious disruption. The affected nations desperately need supplies, health-care workers and a lifeline to the outside world. One important aspect of the response is to keep healthy people working and normal at a time of upheaval. Stopping all flights might worsen their plight and sever trade and investment.

The only sure way to fight the scourge is to identify those who have it, trace those with whom they came in contact and isolate the sick. The epicenter of this work is in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where the outbreak is raging and help is desperately needed. The answer to Ebola is fighting it there, not at the U.S. border. No one is protected when a public health emergency is used for political grandstanding.

Editorial by The Washington Post

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