Oct 27, 2014 2 min read

WAYNESBURG – Congressman Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, told members of the Rotary Club of Waynesburg Monday the Obama Administration’s current strategy to stop Ebola has been a demonstrated failure.

Murphy said the first priority must be to protect the health of the American public. He also said during a hearing he convened as chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee he made it clear the original Centers for Disease Control guidelines to protect healthcare workers were based on false assumptions.

The congressman said panic sets in when the stakes are high and “facts” are later proved false or simply don’t make sense. “Naturally, the public thinks, ‘How can I feel protected and secure if I am not being told the truth?'”

Fever, he said is not apparent in an Ebola patient 13 percent of the time. Moreover, he said fever is not a sure sign of infection because the virus can remain dormant in a person for at least 21 days before symptoms appear, and a high temperature can be masked with medication.

“The trust and credibility of the Administration and government are waning as the American public loses confidence with demonstrated failures of the current strategy. That trust must be restored, but will only be restored with honest and thorough action ,” he said.

Murphy told the Rotarians he sent a letter to President Obama following the conclusion of his Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing that listed steps that needed to be taken to control the outbreak.

Those measures included travel restrictions; 21-day quarantines for those Americans who were exposed to Ebola or visiting the West Africa hot spots; stepped up training and protection for health care workers; accelerated review and approval by the Food and Drug Administration of promising vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests for the Ebola virus; additional medical airplanes capable of transporting Ebola-infected American troops and medical personnel from other countries to the United States for treatment; and a report to Congress on resources needed to contain Ebola at the source to prevent a global epidemics.

“If this gets into China or India, we will see a pandemic of major proportions,” he said.

Murphy said because there is no vaccine or cure, everything needs to be done to “break that chain,” and that includes isolation,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we are having to deal with a lot of what-ifs,” he said.