The White House refused to allow an American doctor who contracted the Ebola virus during his work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to return to the United States, according to five sources familiar with the decisions made against the virus, speaking on condition of anonymity. This delayed the evacuation and treatment of Peter Stafford, who was eventually taken to Germany, as reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday, May 20.
An embarrassing claim that the White House called “absolutely false.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that Berlin was chosen for its proximity.
The newspaper highlights that Washington’s apparent reluctance “strongly contrasts with what happened in 2014 during the Ebola epidemic in West Africa: the first two American patients were evacuated to Atlanta for treatment. At the time, Donald Trump harshly criticized this decision,” the newspaper recalls. “The United States cannot allow people infected with Ebola to return. People who go to faraway places to help are great, but they must bear the consequences!” tweeted the billionaire.
“The president and his entourage did not want to see him return to the United States,” said one of the anonymous sources from The Washington Post regarding Peter Stafford.
Two other American doctors in Europe
Nahid Bhadelia, a doctor who has treated people with the Ebola virus, pointed out that the United States has state-of-the-art facilities for these types of patients. The most suitable one, located in Nebraska, is however largely occupied by people in quarantine for possible exposure to the hantavirus, the newspaper reports. The American response to the epidemic outbreak on the Hondius ship has also been criticized.
Politico also reported that an American doctor who was exposed to Ebola in Uganda was supposed to be hospitalized in Prague on Wednesday, May 20. This is Patrick LaRochelle, according to the Christian charity organization Serge, for which both Peter Stafford and his wife Rebekah worked. Rebekah, who had contact with a sick person, was also transferred to Berlin with the couple’s four children in a separate area, the association indicates. Patrick LaRochelle’s family, who reportedly did not come into contact with a symptomatic patient, was able to return to the United States, according to The Washington Post.
On May 18, the CDC announced a thirty-day ban on travelers who have been to areas affected by the new Ebola epidemic from entering the United States, excluding American citizens and permanent residents, as reported by Politico.
