Coronavirus: US health officials defend strict travel ban amid criticism
- Restrictions bought the US vital time to ‘prepare for the potential of us having a worse pandemic’
- A former health tsar repeated his scepticism about the policy’s effectiveness, saying it may give Americans a false sense of security
US health officials faced tough questioning on Tuesday over Washington’s stringent travel restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus after an Obama administration health tsar claimed there was little scientific basis for the policy.
Officials from the Centres for Diseases Control (CDC) and their top political principal, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, have repeatedly stressed that the restrictions were put in place purely on public health grounds to slow the virus’ inevitable spread in the country.
The policy that took effect on February 2 stipulates that Chinese nationals and other foreigners who have been on the Chinese mainland recently will denied entry into the US.
More than 60 countries have imposed some form of travel restrictions, using a similar rationale as the CDC.
But speaking at a panel discussion on Tuesday alongside CDC officials, Ron Klain, who was the Ebola coordinator in president Barack Obama’s administration, repeated his scepticism about the policy’s effectiveness and suggested it may give Americans a false sense of security.