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Poll: Physicians support ban on travel from West Africa to US
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SERMO, a social network for verified physicians, reported that in an online poll of 1,300 physicians 75% supported a travel ban on passengers from West Africa to the United States and that trust in the government’s ability to respond effectively is low.
Ninety-one percent of responding physicians also indicated they did not believe the Department of Homeland Security is adequately screening passengers from countries affected by Ebola, and 90% said the State Department is not adequately sharing information about travelers from the regions.
“The results of our latest survey show some eye-opening results,” Peter Kirk, CEO of SERMO, said in a press release. “The discussion and survey results on SERMO reflect considerable anxiety within the US health care community as to the gaps in health screening and the risk posed by allowing travelers to come from West Africa.”
Fifty-six percent of respondents, however, did not believe the Ebola cases in Dallas will alter medical preparedness across the United States.
In a previous poll of 370 physicians that focused on contact tracing, the release said, 57% of respondents said they did not have confidence in the CDC’s ability to effectively track contacts made by Ebola patients. Of those, 37% described themselves as “not very confident,” and 20% indicated they were “not confident at all.”
Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they were gaining their information about Ebola from the CDC, and 52% cited peers on SERMO, but 32% said they did not have conversations about preparedness protocols with anyone, and 31% said they “self-educated to prepare.”
“From the perspective of medical preparedness, the country’s medical community has been clear: they do not feel prepared, and they need the federal government to listen to that concern,” the press release said.