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In one of the CDC modeling’s worst-case scenarios, in which only 20 percent of Ebola cases are isolated, most simulations projected more than 20,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths within just three months.
“Utterly disgusted”
With the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) dismantled, American contributions to the response effort have been weaker and slower than in past outbreaks, diminishing the overall response.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s isolationist strategy involving travel restrictions and border closures has raised tensions in other countries. The administration is planning on preventing even US citizens from returning to the states if they have been exposed or infected with the virus. Instead, the US is trying to stand up a makeshift quarantine facility at a military base in Kenya, a country currently unaffected by the outbreak.
The plans have sparked outrage and violent protests among Kenyans. According to reporting by The New York Times, protesters accuse Kenyan officials of bowing to Trump at the expense of allowing a deadly virus into the country, accepting Americans that America itself refuses to take in.
“We are utterly disgusted by the government’s apparent willingness to trade national biosecurity and the lives of its citizens for foreign aid,” the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union said in a statement.
The Times reports that hundreds of people have gathered for protests in Nanyuki, the town closest to the air base. At least three protesters have been shot and killed in conflicts with police, according to the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
Although a Kenyan court had temporarily suspended the quarantine facility from opening, the Trump administration continues to move forward with the plans.
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