It makes "common sense" for the United States to impose a ban on people traveling from countries most affected by Ebola, said Dr. Ben Carson.
Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon and potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, told "Fox & Friends" a travel ban would have been "one of the first things to do" once Ebola began to spread in western Africa. He questioned why the U.S. did not have a ban when other countries had imposed travel restrictions.
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"(A travel ban is) just common sense. You don't want to let something that dangerous voluntarily come into your country," Carson said Thursday. "If other countries have seen the wisdom in doing this, why are we the last?"
Carson predicted officials would "eventually come to this conclusion" to restrict travel, and said the failure to have done so could be "one of the reasons that people are starting to lose confidence in us."
The first diagnosed case of Ebola in the U.S. was Thomas Eric Duncan, who flew to Dallas in September from Liberia. He died Oct. 8, and two nurses who treated him have since fallen ill to the disease.
The reason why officials had not imposed a travel ban was either rooted in politics or a lack of understanding about the depth of the problem Ebola posed to the country, Carson said.
"Either there's some politics here, or there isn't much deep thinking, one of the two. Neither one of those are things that are appealing," he said.
Carson suggested the U.S. would "have to fight" Ebola if the disease spread beyond western Africa into the rest of the continent, Europe, and Central and South America. He said Americans fear people with the disease could enter the country through the southern U.S. border.
"With our southern border being rather porous, can you imagine what will happen to this country? And, I think the average American understands that, and that's why they're concerned. And, they're concerned, also, that our government doesn't seem to understand that," he said.