While P.M. Barrow doesn’t expect repercussions, the U.S. State Department has expressed disappointment in that decision not to have the cruise ship passengers disembarked and flown out from the P.G.I.A. Earlier this evening, during an appearance on CNN’s Situation Room, a representative of the U.S. State Department criticized the decision by saying that the matter could have been handled much differently. The spokeswoman essentially called Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow an idiot for surrendering to fear. Here is what was said.
Wolf Blitzer
“There is a Carnival cruise ship now in the Caribbean, it asked to make a stop in Belize to drop off one hospital worker from Dallas [so] this person could be sent back to the United States because she was in contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died of Ebola. Belize said no! You can’t drop off this passenger there. You deal with these foreign countries, what happened here?”
Marie Harf, U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesperson
“Well again, as I said earlier today in the State Department’s press briefing, we’re disappointed by this. We think it could have been handled differently. Decisions like these need to be made based on information and science and not fear, even though we know this is a very serious disease, serious threat. The ship is on its way back to Galveston, Texas right now. It is expected to dock on Sunday and obviously we’ll be giving any care to this individual that is needed and we’ll keep having the conversations with countries if something like this arises again.”
Wolf Blitzer
“So Belize said no. [Did] Mexico say no too?”
Marie Harf
“Well the Mexican government actually had indicated a willingness too. There was some discussion among local authorities and national authorities but regardless of that the ship is on its way back to the U.S. and going forward, when cases like this arise we will have discussions with these governments about what they can do, what we can do, really based again on the facts here and how we can contain this in a safe way.”
Wolf Blitzer
“But I think it’s safe to say that the State Department, and you speak for the State Department, is disappointed not only in Belize but also in Mexico.”
Marie Harf
“I think when it comes to Belize we made clear that this could have and should have been handled differently in our view. With Mexico I think it’s a little more complicated, they did indicate some willingness to let the ship dock there. What we’re focused on now is going forward, not just any one case but how we can all come together to really put the world’s efforts behind fighting this.”