Afghan Evacuation Flights Have Been Suspended Due To Measles Outbreak
Written by: Sasha Reva
Virginia state health officials recently announced that five people who recently traveled to Virginia from Afghanistan had been diagnosed with measles. This news comes right after the U.S. suspended inbound flights of Afghan evacuees due to discovering a few cases of measles among new arrivals flying out of Germany , Germany has approximately 1,000 evacuees at the U.S. military base. Virginia health officials are now looking into identifying and contacting people who may have been exposed.
White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, told reporters on Friday (9/10) that “Operation Allies Welcome’ flights into the United States have been temporarily paused at the request of the CDC and out of an abundance of caution because of four diagnosed cases of measles among Afghans who recently arrived in the United States.”
All of the individuals are currently in quarantine. Additionally, every Afghan who arrives must receive a measles vaccination, unless already vaccinated, in order to enter the United States. This is yet another critical error on Biden’s presidential resume, failing to medically screen evacuees on arrival, making cases like this unknown until they are symptomatic.
Psaki also noted that the United States is exploring efforts to vaccinate evacuees while they are still overseas. The details of how the vaccination process will be handled has yet to be released, but certainly, the last thing the U.S. needs is a highly contagious measles outbreak.
Photo from: AFP via Getty Images
