--- title: JFK Begins Screening Airline Passengers for Ebola description: But more needs to be done to combat the disease in West Africa to ensure it doesn't spread to the West, say some canonical: https://time.com/3494333/ebola-screenings-airport-jfk/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-11T15:24:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:43:59.975Z article:section: Health og:title: JFK Begins Screening Airline Passengers for Ebola og:description: But more needs to be done to combat the disease in West Africa to ensure it doesn't spread to the West, say some og:url: https://time.com/3494333/ebola-screenings-airport-jfk/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6322eb774954bdf3/69876039e53aba7a514d4f73/jfk-airport-ebola-screening.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: JFK Ebola Screening og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: JFK Begins Screening Airline Passengers for Ebola twitter:description: But more needs to be done to combat the disease in West Africa to ensure it doesn't spread to the West, say some twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6322eb774954bdf3/69876039e53aba7a514d4f73/jfk-airport-ebola-screening.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # JFK Begins Screening Airline Passengers for Ebola ## Video: Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola [Watch (HLS stream): Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EJ3m56cA.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2014-10-02. Health officials in the US are using a method known as contact tracing, to see who is at risk from Ebola._ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 11, 2014 3:24 PM UTC  A US Customs and Border Protection Officer conducts enhanced Ebola screening at JFK International Airport, in New York City on Oct. 10, 2014. A US Customs and Border Protection Officer conducts enhanced Ebola screening at JFK International Airport, in New York City on Oct. 10, 2014.Donna Burton—US Customs and Border Protection/EPA by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 11, 2014 3:24 PM UTC Enhanced [Ebola screenings](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/nyregion/in-us-screening-for-ebola-jfk-is-on-front-lines.html?src=twr) began Saturday at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport as authorities moved to ensure passengers potentially carrying the virus don’t make it into the United States. Anyone traveling from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone will be singled out by Customs and Border Protection, who will take their temperature with a non-contact thermometer and ask them a series of questions, the New York _Times_ reports. Kennedy is the first of five American airports planning to tighten screening protocols in an effort to protect the U.S. from the disease’s possible spread. But health officials warned that the only way to stop Ebola is to defeat it in West Africa. Still, experts say the state of medical care in the U.S. and the current precautions mean that the likelihood of widespread infection here is very low. “The chances of seeing anything like the calamity in western Africa is profoundly remote,” said Dr. Irwin Redlener, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University and a special adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio. \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/nyregion/in-us-screening-for-ebola-jfk-is-on-front-lines.html?src=twr)\] JFK Begins Screening Airline Passengers for Ebola ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3494333/ebola-screenings-airport-jfk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3494333/ebola-screenings-airport-jfk/"},"headline":"JFK Begins Screening Airline Passengers for Ebola","datePublished":"2014-10-11T15:24:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:43:59.975Z","description":"But more needs to be done to combat the disease in West Africa to ensure it doesn't spread to the West, say some","url":"https://time.com/3494333/ebola-screenings-airport-jfk/","keywords":["ebola","Infectious Disease"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6322eb774954bdf3/69876039e53aba7a514d4f73/jfk-airport-ebola-screening.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6322eb774954bdf3/69876039e53aba7a514d4f73/jfk-airport-ebola-screening.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"JFK Ebola Screening","caption":"JFK Ebola Screening","creditText":"Donna Burton—US Customs and Border Protection/EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ebola/","name":"ebola"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3494333/ebola-screenings-airport-jfk/","name":"JFK Begins Screening Airline Passengers for Ebola"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola","description":"Health officials in the US are using a method known as contact tracing, to see who is at risk from Ebola.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/EJ3m56cA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-10-02T18:25:06.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EJ3m56cA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3494333/ebola-screenings-airport-jfk/","duration":"PT1M49S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3494333/ebola-screenings-airport-jfk/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```