U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Friday rejected a call for travel bans from Ebola-ravaged West Africa, suggesting that it was too early for such a move.

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. addresses the annual United Steelworkers convention at the MGM Grand Convention Center on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. Reid on Friday rejected a call for travel bans from Ebola-ravaged West Africa, suggesting that it was too early for such a move. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Friday rejected a call for travel bans from Ebola-ravaged West Africa, suggesting that it was too early for such a move.

“We have a lot of people in Sierra Leone and in places like Liberia who are dual citizens,” the Nevada Democrat said in Henderson. “If there was a ban they would just fly to smaller countries before coming here.”

House Republicans had called for such a travel ban at a congressional hearing Thursday. President Barack Obama rejected the proposal on Friday.

Reid also backed the Obama administration’s approach to the deadly, expressing faith in just-appointed Ebola Czar Ron Klain’s ability to do an “outstanding job” combating the fast-moving disease.

He spoke at the unveiling of a new Regional Transportation Commission mobility training center.

Reid lamented the fact that researchers hadn’t yet come up with a vaccine to defeat the virus, highlighting National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins’ remarks that sequestration cuts had slowed progress on drugs to fight the disease.

He went on to defend Centers for Disease Control and Prevention head Dr. Thomas Frieden, who some have called on to resign over the past week.

Reid said it’s “easy to start firing people,” but that there was no need for the CDC director to step down.

Contact James DeHaven at jdehaven@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3839. Find him on Twitter: @JamesDeHaven