Ebola fears prompt calls to ban flights: Your Say

John F. Kennedy International Airport began enhanced Ebola screenings Saturday, and four other U.S. airports plan to start them this week. Letters to the editor:

Ebola has been around since 1976. Why hasn't any Western country developed a vaccine in all this time? Could it be because the only people affected were people in villages in African countries? I guess it is fine for those villagers to die but not for Westerners.

Yes, we now want to stop Ebola where it is because we don't want it traveling here. I still don't hear enough of a focus on those exposed in Africa, on saving their lives. More than 4,000 have already died in this Ebola outbreak.

We have a long way to go before we treat everyone as equals, valuing the life of everyone and putting compassion before the mighty dollar.

Arleen Lorrance; Scottsdale, Ariz.

Screening at U.S. airports is nuts. We don't need to find the Ebola virus here. We need to keep it in West Africa. Use passport stamps to prohibit anyone who has been in Africa fewer than 30 days ago to come here.

And, if someone travels there and gets Ebola, then they should have to stay there.

We don't need the death, grief and expense of inviting the problem here.

Gene Christie; Beverly Hills, Fla.

Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

While airport screenings alone will not eradicate the Ebola virus, they are a start. What most people don't understand is that the U.S. did not just decide to do something about Ebola now; it has been involved for several months.

People tend to act more out of fear in situations like this instead of with intelligence. Authorities need to try to ensure people are screened over in Africa. If they quarantine people in one place, it's easier to limit the possibility of infecting more people worldwide.

— Denise Ramos

The key to ending this outbreak is getting Ebola in Liberia under control, and a huge part of that involves having Americans (who want to go) help over there to try and stop the spread of the disease. This is not a problem where we can just stick our heads in the sand and wish it away, as much as many people would like to do.

— Craig Macaulay

Screening at U.S. airports will help, but it wouldn't have caught Thomas Eric Duncan, the patient who died in Dallas. And it won't catch the next asymptomatic carrier who wants to enter the USA. Fortunately, Duncan wound up in a hospital, so the number of people who were exposed to the virus was limited.

But what if the next asymptomatic carrier enters the country, gets sick and does not seek treatment? By the time the case is discovered, the number of people affected could be more than 50. Tracing and monitoring possible infection at that time would be extremely difficult.

Until this virus is better understood, the public fully educated and the outbreak controlled, we should do more than screen. We should prohibit entry from the affected countries.

— Leslie Jacobs