President Barack Obama on Saturday played down the idea of travel bans from Ebola-ravaged countries in West Africa, explaining that restrictions could make things worse.

He urged Americans to avoid hysteria over Ebola. He had earlier said that he was not philosophically opposed to travel bans, but in his weekly address made it clear that he is not leaning toward them.

Lawmakers had urged Obama to bar people from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea from entering the United States.

“We can’t just cut ourselves off from West Africa,” said Obama.

He further explained his position by saying that a ban would make it harder to move health workers and supplies into the region, and would motivate people trying to get out the region to evade screening, making it harder to track cases.

“Trying to seal off an entire region of the world – if that were even possible – could actually make the situation worse,” he said.

So far, only one person has died in the United States from Ebola — a Liberian man who flew from Monrovia to Brussels and then to Dallas. Two nurses who helped treat him at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital contracted the disease.

“What we’re seeing now is not an ‘outbreak’ or an ‘epidemic’ of Ebola in America,” said Obama.

“This is a serious disease, but we can’t given in to hysteria or fear.”

With the Nov. 4 elections just weeks away, the issue of the travel ban is being supercharged by partisan considerations with prominent Republicans calling for a ban, including John Boehner, the House speaker.

However, public health officials in the U.S say a travel ban would be ineffective and difficult to carry out and would not entirely prevent people in Ebola-hit countries from entering the United States.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids, like blood or vomit. Unlike the flu, which kills tens of thousands of people each year, there is no vaccine against Ebola and there is no cure. It also has a mortality rate of about 50 percent.