Donald Trump is among a growing chorus of voices calling for a travel ban on countries that have been impacted by Ebola.
On Oct. 4,
Trump used Twitter to criticize the administration for imposing a travel ban on flights to Israel in July after a rocket landed on one of the runways at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International airport.
"President Obama, I have an idea! Pretend that West Africa is Israel and then you will be able to stop the Ebola area flights," Trump wrote Twitter.
He followed up on Sunday with another
tweet critical of Obama's reluctance to stop flights from Africa entering the U.S.
"What the hell is Obama doing in allowing all of these potentially very sick people to continue entering the U.S.! Is he stupid or arrogant?"
Tim Murphy, chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations also supports a ban, telling Fox News that he favors prohibiting people coming from "hot zones" from traveling to the U.S.
He said screening procedures that rely on the word of the traveler is not an "adequate public health response and that he lacks confidence that "letting them come over is going to be sufficient."
Murphy's subcommittee will hold a hearing on the Ebola outbreak on October 16.
Travel bans also have become an issue on the campaign trail. Last week, North Carolina Senate candidate Thom Tillis also called for a travel ban on countries that have been impacted by Ebola, reports
The Greenfield Reporter.
Louisiana governor and potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate Bobby Jindal also supports a travel ban.
"We should stop accepting flights from countries that are Ebola stricken. Even countries in Africa have cut back on or stopped accepting flights from countries with Ebola outbreaks,"
Jindal said in a statement issued by his office.
But, administration officials continue to assert that precautions are being taken and that a travel ban is not the most effective means of preventing the deadly disease from spreading to the U.S.
According to Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, since July 26, as many as 10,000 people who have left Liberia have been screened.
Fauci
told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace that the "best way to avoid someone getting on a plane who is
— has Ebola is to do the exit screening. You get your temperature taken and you get a questionnaire."
Fauci's assertions echo those made recently by Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
who contended that on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that "the way we are going to stop Ebola is not only by caring for individuals, but most importantly by tracking every single contact."