Obama appoints Ebola 'czar' but still opposes travel ban

President Barack Obama is naming Ron Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, as the point man for the U.S. government's response to the Ebola crisis, amid criticism the government's response to the virus has been sluggish and inadequate. But the president said he continued to oppose a ban on travel from West Africa.

Klain has been out of government since leaving Biden's office during the Obama's first term, but has remained a trusted adviser to the Obama administration. The White House said that Klain would report to national security adviser Susan Rice and to homeland security and counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. Klain, a lawyer, also served as chief of staff for Vice President Al Gore. He previously served under Attorney General Janet Reno in the Clinton administration. 

Friday's decision followed remarks a day earlier that it "may be appropriate” for him “to appoint an additional person" to head the administration’s effort in addressing the ongoing situation. Obama authorized calling up military reservists for the U.S. fight against Ebola in West Africa on Thursday.

The president also said he is "not philosophically opposed" to a travel ban from the Ebola-afflicted region of West Africa "if that is the thing that is going to keep the American people safe." But he said experts tell him a ban would be less effective than measures currently in place.

U.S. Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta told reporters separately that the government was assessing whether to issue a travel ban “on a day-to-day basis.”

The administration is under growing criticism from lawmakers over its efforts to contain the disease at home. Lawmakers in Washington focused questions and pointed criticism at a Thursday congressional hearing on Centers for Disease Control director Thomas Frieden.

“We need to look at all the options available to keep our families safe and move quickly and responsibly to make any necessary changes at airports,” Democratic Representative Bruce Braley of Iowa told the hearing.

Several Republicans said flights from the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the virus is widespread, should be stopped. The disease continues to spread in West Africa where outbreak began in March. 

Dr. Isabelle Nuttall, director of the World Health Organization's global capacities alert and response team, said Thursday that the Ebola death toll in West Africa will rise to more than 4,500 people by the end of this week. 

U.S. concerns have also intensified after two Texas nurses who cared for a dying Liberian patient contracted the virus. One of the nurses, 26-year-old Nina Pham, was taken from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas to the NIH center in Bethesda, Maryland, which has one of four isolation units in the U.S. 

Texas Health Presbyterian officials said Wednesday that Pham was in good condition, and hospital spokesman Wendell Watson said Thursday's transfer was necessary because numerous employees are being monitored for Ebola symptoms and aren't available to work.

A second nurse who tested positive, 29-year-old Amber Joy Vinson, has been transferred to a biohazard infectious disease center at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

Pham and Vinson were involved in providing care to Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of Ebola last week at Texas Health Presbyterian and contracted the virus despite wearing protective gear. The virus is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person showing symptoms of Ebola and is not airborne. It has an incubation period of up to 21 days. 

Meanwhile, another Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital worker, who did not have direct contact with Duncan but could have processed his bodily fluids 19 days ago, left on a cruise from Galveston on Sunday, department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

The employee has been self-monitoring since last Monday and has yet to develop a fever or show any other symptom of Ebola, the statement said. The worker and a companion voluntarily isolated themselves in their cabin, and U.S. officials are arranging for the ship to return to the country. 

"We are working with the cruise line to safely bring them back to the United States out of an abundance of caution," Psaki said in the statement.

Spain is also grappling with the spread of the disease, with four new patients with suspected Ebola symptoms admitted to hospitals. Authorities say two of four patients admitted to hospitals in Spain have tested negative in a first round of tests. 

Al Jazeera and wire services