A CNN reporter returning from Liberia says she was “shocked” by the complete lack of screening at the Atlanta airport.
Speaking with HLN’s Robin Meade, CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen revealed the horrifying incident in detail.
“I expected that they were going to take my temperature, they were going to ask me lots of questions, but they didn’t,” Cohen said.
Troubled by the lack of questioning, Cohen revealed her role as a journalist covering the Ebola outbreak, assuming an enhanced screening would then take place.
“I said, ‘I’m a journalist, I’ve come back from Liberia, I was covering Ebola,’ and the gentleman who was helping me, the officer, he started to hand my passport back and say, ‘welcome home,'” Cohen said. “But instead he said, ‘oh wait a second, I got an email about passengers like you, hold on a second,’ and he went and conferred with someone and he didn’t know and they conferred with someone else and in the end he said, ‘you need to watch yourself for signs of Ebola,’ and I said ‘well what am I watching for?’ and he couldn’t tell me.”
Incredibly, Cohen went on to reveal that two of her co-workers received no screening at all, even after admitting they had just returned from Liberia.
“Now is if that weren’t bad enough Robin, I was traveling with two colleagues, a photojournalist and a producer, and they weren’t told anything and they also said that they were journalists who’ve been covering Ebola,” Cohen said. “So we were all kind of shocked and pretty horrified at the lack of screening in US airports…”
Despite the federal government’s claims, the incident provides yet another glaring example of the complete disregard for public safety.
Just last week, five employees with the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department were thrown into harm’s way after being ordered to enter Thomas Eric Duncan’s quarantined apartment without any protective gear.
That same day, Texas health officials, who admittedly delayed a proper Hazmat cleaning of Duncan’s apartment for several days, used an unprotected cleaning crew to pressure wash Duncan’s vomit from the sidewalk.
Meanwhile, as the scientists who discovered Ebola warn of an “apocalyptic scenario,” the federal government continues to ignore the need for stopping all incoming flights from Ebola-affected nations.
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