“Harvard University has imposed an effective travel ban on Ebola-striken countries, requiring students, faculty, and staff to obtain official permission from the university administration before traveling to affected parts of West Africa, and possibly staying off campus for 21 days after returning to the U.S. from those countries.”
Harvard University? Hmm… I guess I had a somewhat different picture of that institution.
The Harvard Crimson states reasons for this:
Considering Harvard has a medical school and a public health school, I think it’s reasonable to set up travel guidelines.
There is a huge difference between a travel ban and requiring university associates to obtain permission before traveling to affected countries. Unless the plan is to routinely deny all requests for travel, Harvard is just putting in place more effective controls. From reading more about this, it sounds like Harvard personnel may very well be traveling to affected countries in order to assist and do research, but the university wants to ensure that 1) Only people with proper qualifications and appropriate precautions make the trip, and 2) The university is prepared to deal with the situation if anyone is infected. This sounds like caution and foresight, rather than unnecessary hysteria to me.
No, they didn’t.
Harvard implemented travel restrictions for Harvard affiliates on traveling to Ebola-stricken countries on university business.
So anyone who is affiliated with Harvard can travel to Ebola-stricken countries on their own dime and time.