On the ebola topic, but not related to research and news articles ... I finally found out what happened to my two Liberian neighbors/friends who'd gone over for a vacation to visit family ... I saw one of them today, he's back working in the small grocery store in my building ... turns out that the two of them are cousins ... one of them is considered the official head of the entire family in Liberia ... all of whom live in and around Monrovia ... they stayed over there longer, in order to bring all of the family members in to live in the main family home ... actually, a large "compound" that the head of family has had built over there, by sending money from the US over to other family members to use for the construction ... (clearly materials and labor are dirt cheap there) ...
Anyway, they got the entire family together, have rented other houses very nearby as needed, and made sure that they had stockpiles of food, hygiene and health supplies, etc.... and they came back to the US ... the family is living inside the compound and the close by houses, and not going to the open markets, etc. in order to avoid exposure ...
My two neighbors returned home, here in DC. the family elder is a US citizen, the younger man has his green card. The senior family "matron" who lives in Liberia is managing the family living in the compound ... she also has a US green card ...
My neighbors and the "matron" are now working to get US travel visas for as many of the family members as they can, focusing on the parents with young children. They want to get them all here to the US.
This fellow told me today that the US has placed NO restrictions on travel from Liberia or any of the ebola hot spots to the US, nor have they instituted any kind of quarantine or health check before entering the US ....
And in addition, the US has instituted an "informal" policy of allowing anyone from those countries who is currently here on a travel, student or any other kind of visa to "over stay" indefinitely so they do not have to return to their countries. Nor have any limits been placed on how many individuals from any of these countries are allowed to travel here ....
My friends are counting on this "free over stay" policy to be applied to anyone who comes here from those countries on newly issued visas ......
He said that everyone in the US who is from one of those countries and has permanent residence or US citizenship is doing the same thing for their extended family members ... applying to get them travel visas to come to the US ... because we've placed no travel restrictions, no health quarantine or check restrictions on them, and have essentially "waived" the requirement that they actually return to those countries ...
Given the relatively long "incubation" period of ebola, this strikes me as complete recklessness and disregard for the safety of our citizens on the part of what I used to think was "my" US government.
Also, I didn't ask, but my assumption is that any family members who get here will immediately apply for and receive food stamps and Medicaid ... further stressing our system to the point of collapse....