The Trump administration has decided that the best way to handle an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is to make sure Americans can’t come home. On Monday, US citizens in the DRC - or anyone who’s been there recently - were slapped on a “do-not-board” list, barring their return unless they spend 21 days cooling their heels in a third country. The order, issued under the obscure transportation authority known as Title 49, was confirmed by Politico after Reuters broke the story.

Roughly two dozen Americans who planned to fly home on Tuesday have already been blocked. Whether government workers, including at least two dozen CDC employees in the DRC, are exempt remains unclear - because nothing says public health like leaving your experts stranded.

This is the latest in a series of travel restrictions that health experts have called historically unsuccessful and actively harmful. Such measures, they note, discourage transparency about outbreaks, wreck economies, and create stigma. They also tend to limit humanitarian aid workers, which is super helpful during a health crisis. Ebola, after all, doesn’t spread like a cold; it requires contact with bodily fluids from sick or deceased people. It’s a disease of compassion, spreading among family, caregivers, and medical personnel - not someone sneezing next to you on a plane.

CDC guidelines state that “do-not-board” lists are meant for travelers “known or suspected to have a contagious disease,” not anyone who’s been in a country with an outbreak. But hey, why let facts get in the way of a good policy? Meanwhile, the US has an elite network of facilities ready to handle Ebola cases - as proven in past outbreaks, where eight patients were repatriated without a single transmission. But this time, the administration is trying a new approach: isolationism.

The World Health Organization, struggling after the US withdrew its membership and funding, warns the outbreak is spiraling. On Tuesday, the WHO said it has less than half the money needed to respond. Last week, it reported that four out of five new Ebola cases have no link to known cases, indicating undetected spread. The true scale could be two to four times larger than official counts. As of July 14, the DRC has 1,963 cases and 719 deaths. But sure, let’s focus on keeping Americans out.