Kenyan court blocks U.S. plan to open Ebola quarantine center to treat Americans

By — William Brangham William Brangham By — Azhar Merchant Azhar Merchant Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/kenyan-court-blocks-u-s-plan-to-open-ebola-quarantine-center-to-treat-americansebola-outbreak Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio In Central Africa, authorities are still struggling to get their hands around an Ebola outbreak with more than 900 suspected cases. A Kenyan court temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plan to open a quarantine facility there to treat Americans exposed to or infected with the virus. William Brangham discussed the latest with Dr. Craig Spencer, who contracted Ebola during a 2014 outbreak. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Amna Nawaz: In Central Africa, officials and health workers are still struggling to get control of a spreading and deadly Ebola outbreak. There are now more than 900 suspected cases and over 220 suspected deaths. Authorities fear the real numbers may be significantly higher. Geoff Bennett: And, today, a Kenyan court temporarily blocked the Trump administration's plan to open a quarantine facility there to treat Americans exposed to or infected with the virus. William Brangham has more. William Brangham: That's right, Geoff. Kenyan officials had initially approved this plan for an Ebola facility requested by the Trump administration. But local backlash spurred a legal challenge to halt that project. Under today's ruling, that facility must remain closed until the court hears the case next week. For more on all of this, we are joined again by Dr. Craig Spencer. He's an associate professor of public health and emergency medicine at Brown University. He worked in West Africa during the 2014 outbreak and survived Ebola himself. Craig Spencer, so good to have you back on the program. About this Kenyan quarantine facility, you wrote that this was an abdication of American responsibility to possibly send Americans there. How so? Dr. Craig Spencer: Well, over the last year, we have seen an abdication of U.S. leadership on the global stage. And I think we're seeing the ramifications of that in terms of the response in Eastern Congo right now. But this detail, not only that it's a quarantine facility, but that the U.S. also planned on treating American citizens who are infected with Ebola in this facility that they're creating in Kenya right now, is an abdication, because I'm worried that there is no way that, in the span of a few weeks or even a few months, they're going to be able to stand up the quality of care that is necessary to really take care of a very sick Ebola patient. And I'm also concerned, because, over the past decade, the only real good thing to come out of my illness was the fact that we built and sustained a system of specialized treatment centers all around the United States that a