BBC in Ebola panic as border official shake hands with passengers from West Africa arriving at Heathrow Airport
London (October 15) - One of Britain's best known TV personalities, the BBC newsreader and presenter Fiona Bruce has waved a red for danger flag here by revealing that make-up artists at the state corporation are terrified of catching Ebola from guests who have been in contact with West Africa and West Africans.
In a front page lead report in the mass-circulation tabloid ‘The Sun' alongside a picture of Bruce, TV Editor Will Payne said that experts on the outbreak from virus-hit regions "will not be allowed into BBC buildings and will, instead, be interviewed by phone or Skype."
The paper's report today said that while attending a Wellbeing for Women meeting at a London Hotel on Monday (October 13) the TV presenter said: "We have make-up artists who are saying, ‘Hang on, these people are just turning up in our chair. They have just come in from Guinea. Do I want to be touching them?' Which is not unreasonable."
The paper's report quoted her saying: "There will be companies up and down the land who must be having conversations about this if they have any international aspect to their business."
'The Sun' quoted a BBC source saying that anyone from an Ebola-hit country who is not being monitored and given the all-clear will not be invited into any of its building and a BBC spokesperson explaining - "Where people have been exposed to the virus but have not registered with public health authorities we recommend interviews take place by telephone or videphone."
The paper - a daily read for millions of Britons - said that the screening process put in place at Heathrow Airport yesterday was in a state of "shambles."
Reporters monitoring events at London's main airport said that border official were unsure if screening tests for those arriving from West Africa (via European terminals such as Brussels) were compulsory or not.
The well-known British-based Sierra Leonean film-maker Sorious Samura (‘Cry Freedom' and ‘Exodus from Africa') told how officials at Heathrow shook him by the hand when he volunteered to be tested for Ebola.
He had flown in from Liberia which is one of the three West African states devastated by the epidemic which has claimed 4,447 lives to date. The others are Guinea and Sierra Leone. He told journalists:"It was a complete joke. Nobody made me declare I had come back from Liberia. I only got the questionnaire because I was responsible and decided to get tested. There was never a stage when I thought it was serious."
Border chiefs said that they could not force travellers to be screened for Ebola - a claim rebuffed later by Downing Street. Last night the Prime Minister's office insisted the checks - which involve a temperature check and a questionnaire - are compulsory.
Checks will be extended to Gatwick Airport and Eurostar terminals later this week.
The temperature of fear continue to go up as Labour peer, Lord (Robert) Winston, warned the Ebola virus could mutate and become airborne.
Speaking in the House of Lords, he accused Health Minister Earl Howe of "complacency" after he said that the risk to Britons remained low.
Winston said: "We know Ebola can mutate. We know perfectly well it is not airborne at the moment. However, can you assure us that people are looking at the risk of mutation so we can make certain its mode of transmission does not change?"
He was assured that "very close monitoring" was being carried out.
Meantime, The World Health Organisation's Dr Bruce Aylward has warned that there could be up to 10,000 new cases every week by Christmas. He said many more people will die if the world's response to the worst Ebola outbreak ever recorded is not stepped up.
Other WHO sources believe that as many as 1.4 million people could be carrying the virus by January next year - not all of them West Africans.
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