The coronavirus gives Trump his biggest outbreak emergency yet — and experts are worried
WASHINGTON — When Ebola was spreading in West Africa in 2014, Donald Trump took to Twitter.
“STOP THE FLIGHTS!,” he blasted in all capital letters. “NO VISAS FROM EBOLA STRICKEN COUNTRIES.”
He even cast doubt on the honesty of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tweeting: “Ebola is much easier to transmit than the CDC and government representatives are admitting. Spreading all over Africa — and fast.”
It wasn’t true, of course, and common wisdom among public health authorities holds that blocking flights does nothing to stop the spread of disease. It can, in some cases, make things worse.
Now Trump is president, and leading an administration that is chaotic and fractious. The outbreak of a new coronavirus could be his biggest public health challenge, and veterans of other disease outbreaks and epidemics are worried about how he’ll handle it.
“We are likely to see trade bans, quarantines and other overreactions that are very harmful,” said Lawrence Gostin, a senior professor at Georgetown University and an expert in global health law who has advised several administrations. “With the Ebola epidemic, it was urging
