As Gov. Scott Slams CDC Over Ebola, Airports Prepare For Threat
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - While Florida Governor Rick Scott severely criticized the Centers for Disease Control for not being responsive to the state's request Friday, South Florida airport officials had a frank talk about Ebola.
"You're not going to have a case here. What you're going to have is a suspect case," said FIU Ebola Expert Dr. Aileen Marty.
She said it's the main risk for which South Florida's major airports must prepare.
Based on her experience in Africa. she said "the average time has been 11.5 days from documented exposure to symptoms."
Both of South Florida's major airports are educating staffers who may encounter a sick passenger.
"The best way to put folks at ease is to educate them," said Miami International Airport Director Emilio Gonzalez.
Meantime, Scott is pressuring the federal government to help the state be prepared.
"The CDC and the federal government have already admitted that they have failed to get ahead of the spread of Ebola in other states – and we aren't going to let that happen in Florida," said Scott.
Miami International Airport is the second largest international passenger airport in the U.S. Seventy percent of all visitors in the state come through South Florida and Scott said more resources are needed to detect a possible case of Ebola.
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"We've asked for 30 testing kits so we are ready to conduct tests on any cases that could be Ebola. To date, they've only given us 3," said Scott.
The three kits can test a total of 25 people.
Scott said the state is redirecting $1.25 million in federal grant money for Ebola preparedness, specifically to purchase high level personal protection equipment for first responders and health care workers. Also, the Florida National Guard is setting up two rapid response teams and all hospitals in the state have completed training in Ebola procedures.
"In Florida, we are not going to simply wait for the federal government to be prepared. We are taking action," said Scott. "
Scott wants the CDC to set up temperature screening for all arriving international passengers at Florida's airports.
"The federal government should add Florida airports to list of increased federal safety steps. We have people who have come into contact with Ebola coming from Western African countries, we need to know that," said Scott.
Scott has asked the CDC to expand their contact of airline passengers to include all passengers who traveled on the same Frontier Airlines plane as Dallas nurse Amber Joy Vinson for the full 24 hours after her flight. Within 24 hours of Amber's flight with a low-grade fever, the plane made five additional stops – including one into and one out of Fort Lauderdale Airport. The airline said after her flight on October 14th they sanitized the plane consistent with CDC guidelines and put it back in service. The flight in to and out of Ft. Lauderdale occurred on the following day.
"This Frontier case, we didn't know about it until a couple of days after and now they're going thru a number of things, but clearly the folks who traveled on it need to be followed," said Broward Aviation Director Ken George.
Scott said he was thankful that there were no cases of Ebola in Florida and his top priority was to make sure the state stays safe.
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