FactCheck: What we were told about Ebola
Sen. John McCain claimed on a Sunday talk show that "we were told there would never be a case of Ebola in the United States." Not exactly. U.S. health officials, early in the outbreak, said it was highly unlikely, but we could not find any instances of them saying it would never happen.
At a July 28 press briefing concerning the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official Stephan Monroe said the virus "poses little risk to the U.S. general population." But, he added, "it's possible that someone could become infected with the Ebola virus in Africa and then get on a plane to the U.S." Monroe called this scenario a "very remote possibility," but he didn't say it could never happen, as the senator claimed.
Even earlier, in an April 2 Bloomberg News story about the outbreak, Monroe said a suspected Ebola case in Canada that turned out to be a false alarm "reminded us that any of these diseases are only a plane ride away."
That is exactly what happened in Texas, where Thomas Duncan died Oct. 8 after contracting the disease in Liberia and flying to the United States.
The Arizona Republican made his remarks on CNN Oct. 12 after "State of the Union" host Candy Crowley asked McCain about the breaking news that "one of the health care workers who had contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan has tested positive for the virus." McCain criticized federal officials for giving information about Ebola "that's not correct."
The U.S. agency chiefly responsible for preventing the spread of infectious diseases is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which acted early to contain the spread of the virus at its source. The World Health Organization said the Ebola outbreak started in Guinea in March. The CDC, on March 31, sent a five-member team to Guinea to assist on Ebola cases, according to the April 2 Bloomberg News article. At the time, the WHO reported that there were 112 confirmed Ebola cases, including 70 deaths, in Guinea. (As of Oct. 13, the CDC website had reported more than 4,600 confirmed cases in multiple countries, including 2,431 deaths.)
In the Bloomberg article in April, Monroe — who is deputy director for the agency's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases — spoke of the possibility of travelers bringing the disease to North America.
On July 28, Monroe spoke again about the possibility of infected travelers arriving in the U.S. This time it was during a CDC press briefing that was held after two U.S. workers became infected with the virus at a hospital in Liberia. Monroe called it a "very remote possibility."
Less than two weeks after Monroe called it a "very remote possibility," CDC Director Tom Frieden wrote on the CDC Director Blog that "there is a risk for Ebola to be introduced to the United States," but that "widespread transmission in the United State is highly unlikely."
So, the possibility of an Ebola case in the U.S. went from being a "very remote possibility" to being a "risk" that could lead to a "cluster of cases." But in both cases, the possibility existed. That also has been the position of President Obama and the White House, and for the same reasons.
The fact that Ebola cannot be spread through the air — like influenza — has helped to contain past outbreaks to a particular region, President Obama said at an Aug. 1 press conference. There have been 16 Ebola outbreaks since 2000, mostly in African countries,according to the CDC.
On Sept. 16, the White House issued a fact sheet saying an outbreak in the U.S. "is highly unlikely," but "unintentional" cases were possible. This was two weeks before the CDC confirmed the first case of Ebola in the U.S. in Texas.
It would have been correct for McCain to say we were told that an Ebola case in the United States is highly unlikely, as conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh has said. But we can find no evidence that "we were told there would never be a case of Ebola in the United States." We asked McCain's office for evidence, but we did not get a response and neither did our colleagues at Politifact. If we do, we will update this item.
– Eugene Kiely
Factcheck.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. Based in Philadelphia, Factcheck monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Its goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding. Find a list of Factcheck.org funders here.