5 ms·

Fifty years ago there would be a quarantine, no travellers from Africa, and no response necessary.

• misterbwong 12y ago
  Fifty years ago, not many people would have cared if travel was cut off. The world is a different place now and countries (continents?) are not as isolated as they are now. You can't get away with blank travel bans any more because it would cause a huge disruption for a lot of people.
• aaronbrethorst 12y ago
  There was a flu pandemic in 1957, for which I can't find any evidence that the United States initiated a quarantine or blocked travelers from Asia. So, I'd love to know why you think there would've been a quarantine 50 years ago. Would it have been in response to the flu pandemic 7 years before?
  • hga 12y ago
    That pandemic killed an estimated 69,800 Americans. It's simply not in the same class as this Ebola outbreak, and as an airborne disease (infects the upper respiratory tract) that's easily transmitted a quarantine would have been much less practical. That was also a period when we had a bunch of new antibiotics available to help with secondary infections, which are frequently the biggest problem with influenza.
• gdubs 12y ago
  There's a good argument out there that a quarantine just makes the situation worse -- more friction for aid organizations to do their work, for one thing.