While America's top health officials have said they don't expect Ebola to spread in the United States, a doctor walking through Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport clearly stated his position on the topic.
The "CDC is lying!" the back of Dr. Gil Mobley's white jumpsuit suit said.
Dressed in a mockup of full protective gear, the Missouri doctor protested how health officials are communicating about the disease since a patient was diagnosed in the U.S. earlier week.
Two days after a man in Texas was diagnosed with Ebola, Dr. Gil Mobley, a Missouri doctor, checked in and went through security dressed in full protection gear. (AP /Atlanta Journal-Constitution, John Spink)
“If they’re not lying, they are grossly incompetent,” Mobley told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Yesterday, I came through international customs at the Atlanta airport,” the microbiologist and trauma doctor added to the newspaper. “The only question they asked arriving passengers is if they had tobacco or alcohol.”
Mobley was protesting what he called mismanagement of the crisis by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (AP /Atlanta Journal-Constitution, John Spink)
Watch this video of Mobley at a TSA checkpoint in his eye-catching garb:
In this video, Mobley puts out "a public call for action":
Mobley went on to say that he believes the disease will continue spread in developing countries because they lack basic infrastructure. From there, he said that further flights from these countries will increase its spread worldwide and it will "overwhelm any advanced country’s ability to contain the clusters in isolation and quarantine."
Mobley told the Springfield News-Leader his suit and other items were taken away before he boarded his flight home to Missouri.
"They gave me the option of confiscating my equipment or not flying," Mobley told the newspaper.
While Mobley said the CDC is "asleep at the wheel," the federal health department is not the only one that is confident that it can make sure Ebola remains contained here. U.S. White House Spokesman Josh Earnest echoed these thoughts Wednesday as well.
Mobley warned that the disease will spread further in developing countries, increasing the likelihood that it will be "imported" to the U.S. (AP/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, John Spink)
“There are protocols in place where those individuals who are leaving West Africa and traveling to the West are screened,” he said. “We’ve also provided guidance to pilots, flight attendants and others who… are sort of responsible for staffing our transportation infrastructure, we’ve given them guidance for monitoring the health and well-being of travelers, to ensure that if they notice individuals who are exhibiting symptoms that seem to be consistent with Ebola, that the proper authorities are notified.”
Concern over Ebola being "imported" into the U.S. has grown since a man identified as Thomas Eric Duncan became the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed in America. Other Americans have been flown back to the country for treatment after already testing positive for the Ebola virus. Duncan, however, flew from Liberia to Texas before he exhibited any symptoms.
Duncan went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Thursday but was initially discharged when his recent travels were not communicated among all of the staff involved on his case. By Sunday, Duncan was back in the hospital and has remained there in isolation since. The CDC and Dallas health officials have been following up with people who might have had direct contact with Duncan since he became infectious or secondary exposure.
In a tweet Thursday, the Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services said Dr. Christopher Perkins visited Duncan's family, who are under orders to remain at home without visitors. Perkins reported that they show "no signs or symptoms as of yet."
In West Africa, the Ebola outbreak has spread to more than 7,000 people and killed more than 3,000.
(H/T: Daily Mail)
