McConnell: Ebola flight ban a ‘good idea’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said this week that banning flights to African nations that are battling Ebola would be a “good idea,” Kentucky television station cn|2 reports. 

“I’m not an expert on this, but it strikes me that it would be a good idea to discontinue flights from that part of the world,” McConnell said after a campaign event.

“I have been told this can be safely done,” McConnell continued. “And we all know we have a huge stake in containing this disease where it is.” 

{mosads}Pressure has been building on President Obama to ban flights to West African nations that are battling Ebola as concerns mount about the disease spreading within the United States. 

Administration officials have resisted a flight ban thus far, arguing it would make it harder to deliver relief supplies without helping to stop the spread of the virus.

McConnell is the latest in a growing number of lawmakers who are rejecting the administration’s argument, joining 40 House members and six other senators, according to a tally by The Hill. 

The Obama administration has expressed confidence that its decision to implement enhanced screening for Ebola symptoms at airports in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Washington and Atlanta would be effective in stopping the disease from spreading further into the United States.

Lawmakers are skeptical, although several have requested that increased screenings be put in place at airports in their states.

The administration has said its screening at New York’s John F. Kennedy, Newark, Washington Dulles, O’Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson international airports would reach 94 percent of people who are arriving in the U.S. from West Africa.