Trump administration building Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Turning now to Ebola in Africa. The Trump administration confirms it is working to set up a quarantine facility in Kenya. White House officials told reporters today it will be open tomorrow. It will be open only for Americans who were exposed to or infected with the deadly illness. At least 223 people are believed to have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That number, of course, is expected to grow. I want to bring in CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Selene Gounder. As you know, and we discuss this every time, she's an infectious disease specialist who spent time in Guinea as an Ebola aid worker during the West African pandemic. Dr. Gounder, help my audience understand what you make of and what those in this space perceive about the either benefits or the risks of putting a facility in Kenya and not bringing any American who's suspected of being infected home for treatment here.

[00:00:53]So this facility in Kenya will have treatment uh monoconal antibodies which may or may not work against this uh variant this species of Ebola antivirals uh respiratory support but medevac planes can actually deliver all of that in the air what the planes cannot do so diialysis mechanical ventilation heart lung bypass machines the quarantine unit in Kenya will not be able to do either on the other hand American bioontainment units at places like Emory, Nebraska, Belleview, and other facilities across the country, they can provide that higher level of care. So, the administration is essentially sending Americans uh who get infected with Ebola to a middle tier of care when they could go straight to the best back home. And they're also uh saying that if Americans need a higher level of care, they will be sent to facilities in Europe. They haven't yet identified what those facilities would be. And the plan is already facing resistance on the ground, not just from uh aid workers and and specialists like myself who are concerned that this will discourage people from going over to assist, but also on the ground. The Kenya's doctor's union is threatening a nationwide strike. And you have a uh legal challenge that has been filed in Kenya's highest court.

[00:02:12]And the Kenyan concern is this facility if it's there should be available I'm gathering to everyone not just Americans. I think that's point one.

[00:02:22]Point two is there a history ever Dr. Goundonder of a situation where the American government said an American cannot come home for treatment of any kind of disease.

[00:02:34]>> Yeah. So this is uh there are questions about the constitutionality of this. Uh so your part of your liberties as an American citizen is freedom of travel and this uh might possibly violate the fifth amendment. Um so there are real concerns about um you know it may not be a ban on paper but if the US government is the only way you can get back and they are not providing you with the way to get back in essence it is a ban from travel back to the US.

[00:03:05]>> Talk to the audience my audience Dr. Gander about screening at airports.

[00:03:10]Where is it happening? What does it mean? And what kind of protection does it provide?

[00:03:16]>> So there are four airports now. So Dallasos, Atlanta, JFK and Houston. Um with Ebola, the incubation period is up to 21 days. So somebody could pass through the airport, be incubating the infection, pass a temperature screen, and develop symptoms a week or uh even longer later. So screening will only catch the rare traveler who already has symptoms, many of whom just wouldn't want to fly because they feel so sick.

[00:03:42]It misses everybody in the incubation window. So it's one layer, but it's not going to stop an epidemic. And in fact, we tried to do this with COVID. Uh we screened um hundreds of thousands of passengers, only picked up nine that had COVID. So, what the what these kinds of restrictions on on travel do is they make it harder for people to go in and um respond to this kind of outbreak.

[00:04:08]What really stops an epidemic like this is the basics, your surveillance, your contact tracing, uh testing, and then treatment and isolation if you uh pick up a case of Ebola. And unfortunately, the infrastructure that USAD and PEPFAR built over decades to do exactly that kind of work, that infrastructure uh was dismantled last summer.

[00:04:31]>> Very quickly, Dr. Gounder, when the White House talked to reporters today, it said the Kenyon facility is beneficial because it's quick. anyone suspected of having Ebola can get there and that's better than putting them on a plane and allowing things to happen that otherwise won't if you're there more rapidly dealt with. Is there any validity to that?

[00:04:52]>> Well, you're basically um let's say they they decompensate, they get worse, and they the option is sending them to Europe versus the US. That's a difference of five or six hours. So, it's not a huge difference. And again, the planes can deliver the same level of care as this facility in Kenya would be able to deliver. In fact, may even be better. Um, and so there's really no reason from a travel perspective, a transit time perspective, not to put them immediately on the plane and send them to where we have the best care in the world for this.

[00:05:25]>> Dr. Selen Gander, thank you very much as always.