Originally published October 12 2014
U.S. General says Ebola can't be contained, spreading to Central America would spark mass migration
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) The top officer for U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has said there is little chance that the world can prevent the Ebola virus from spreading outside West Africa, meaning more people from more parts of the world will become infected and die in the coming months.
Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly told an audience at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., in recent days that the spread of the virus to Central and South America -- part of SOOUTHCOM's region of responsibility -- is especially likely, the Armed Forces Press Service reported.
"By the end of the year, there's supposed to be 1.4 million people infected with Ebola and 62 percent of them dying, according to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]," Kelly said. "That's horrific. And there is no way we can keep Ebola [contained] in West Africa."
If the virus makes it to the Western Hemisphere -- which has already happened, with a patient in Dallas dying of the disease recently -- too many nations will not have the capability to deal with an outbreak because they are poor, underequipped, undertrained and unprepared.
'Katie bar the door'
"So, much like West Africa, it will rage for a period of time," Kelly said, adding that it is very possible if the disease makes it to Haiti or Central America. And if it lands in countries like Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador, that will cause people there to panic and head to countries like Mexico and, as we saw in summer, to the U.S. (and there are no indications that the Obama Administration will do much to seal the border, as it has repeatedly failed to do).
"If it breaks out, it's literally, 'Katie bar the door,' and there will be mass migration into the United States," Kelly said. "They will run away from Ebola, or if they suspect they are infected, they will try to get to the United States for treatment."
The general also noted that transnational criminal gangs and Mexico-based drug cartels have taken over the human-smuggling trade, and many of those people could wind up carrying Ebola into the country.
He said he recently visited the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua with U.S. embassy staff; when he was there, a group of men "were waiting in line to pass into Nicaragua and then on their way north," he said.
Existential threat
"The embassy person walked over and asked who they were and they told him they were from Liberia and they had been on the road about a week," Kelly added. "They met up with the network in Trinidad and now they were on their way to the United States -- illegally, of course."
Those men, he said, "could have made it to New York City and still be within the incubation period for Ebola."
Couple Kelly's observations with some fairly scary testimony that he provided to Congress earlier this year, in which he claimed that he could not adequately protect the U.S. southern border with Mexico unless Congress (with the President's consent) provided more assistance.
Defense One reported that Kelly, in testimony before the House and Senate armed services committees, requested more funds, ships and drones -- requests that were not likely to be met -- to help better secure the nation's southern border.
"In comparison to other global threats, the near collapse of societies in the hemisphere with the associated drug and [illegal alien] flow are frequently viewed to be of low importance," he told the defense publication. "Many argue these threats are not existential and do not challenge our national security. I disagree."
To learn more about how to prepare for a potential Ebola crisis here in the U.S., be sure to check out:
BioDefense.com.
Sources:
http://www.weeklystandard.com
http://www.defense.gov
http://www.defenseone.com
http://science.naturalnews.com
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