Posted on 11/01/2014 10:06:45 AM PDT by Kaslin
"I would not be inclined to make a political decision on something as serious as Ebola," Gov. Jerry Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle's Carla Marinucci on Monday. By Wednesday, California had joined New Jersey and New York in mandating 21-day quarantines for people returning from Ebola-stricken areas if they had contact with infected patients. Unlike New York, California had yet to see a confirmed Ebola case, although state health officials are aware of 19 individuals who recently traveled to an Ebola-affected country.
Of course, international leaders oppose American quarantines -- which can only add to the already considerable burden assumed by U.S. health care workers who selflessly put themselves in harm's way to care for strangers dealing with a scary contagion. "The best way to protect us is to stop the epidemic in Africa," National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Dr. Anthony Fauci argued, "and we need those health care workers, so we do not want to put them in a position where it makes it very, very uncomfortable for them to even volunteer to go."
Nurse Kaci Hickox was quarantined for three days in New Jersey before she returned to her Maine home, where she is resisting a different quarantine order. Hickox has become the face of health care workers who oppose quarantines. She has not tested positive for Ebola. She says she was asymptomatic, but New Jersey health officials assert she had a fever. On Thursday, Hickox and her boyfriend went bicycling in defiance of the stay-home order. Biking on a country road was smart, because if she had gone for a walk through a public square, I don't think she would have had as pleasant an outing.
Let me stipulate: Hickox is a better person than I am. She went to Sierra Leone to save lives, while I lived snugly in the Bay Area. But she doesn't win points when she complains that the New Jersey quarantine was "inhumane" and asserts, as she told CNN, "We have to be very careful about letting politicians make health decisions."
Others intone that quarantine orders go "against the science" -- because experts say that the disease can be passed only when those with the virus are symptomatic. But scientists also know that a quarantine can prevent infected people from passing the virus on to others. So don't tell me quarantines are anti-science.
And it's not as if the experts have been right. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas sent Thomas Eric Duncan home even though he was symptomatic and after he told the hospital he had recently traveled from Africa. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said nurses could have contracted Ebola from Duncan only if they breached protocol -- when we now know that early CDC protocols were a joke. NBC's chief medical editor, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, was caught violating a voluntary quarantine that was in place because a member of her crew had contracted the virus in Liberia. Doctors Without Borders physician Craig Spencer apparently rode New York City subways when, having returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea, he should have stayed off public transportation.
I don't blame Spencer. He's an American, and no American expects to get Ebola. Nor do the doctors and nurses who travel to Africa to minister to the sick. It's simply not realistic to expect everyone who returns from West Africa to share the attitude of Stanford University physician Colin Bucks. Bucks told the San Jose Mercury News: "If I had to go outside the house, it would be completely safe. But for community reassurance, I'm staying completely inside my house and on the property. I wouldn't want anything to happen that would heighten community anxiety."
Seeing as Bucks' attitude is not universal, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was right when he told reporters: "I don't believe, when you're dealing with something as serious as this, that we can count on a voluntary system. This is government's job. If anything else, the government's job is to protect the safety and health of our citizens." Like many others, I would rather see the government act a day or two early than a day or two late in this instance.
Niether one
FR’s ex-spurts will be by shortly to tell us we can trust the obama administration.
FR’s ex-spurts will be by shortly to tell us we can trust the obama administration.
(Since all records of obama's past were lost in a tragic boating accident and fire, no one can be certain that the guy in the red circle isn't him...)
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
I agree, but the correct spelling is neither one
Neither.
Next question?
C. A political hack and career bureaucrat named Ron Klain who happened to be looking for a job
In this case, the science is settled.
Everyone is out of step but Johnny (Obama)./s
The so-called experts are in league with the corrupt pols, so I’ll trust myself.
I suppose that the naive view of government as embodied in that quote may have had some traction in years past, but any student of reality would appreciate that nowadays, from "the government's" view, the government's sole job is to protect the government from the needs and desires of "the governed".
(From another Freeper):"The experts at the CDC and elsewhere work closely with the people who actually work in the labs researching Ebola-
-the people who have discovered everything we know about Ebola."
My response : POPPYCOCK !!
The CDC, these are the same people who obtained a damaged enroute sample in 1976 and upon which they have become the national authority on Ebola.
The same CDC that had unsecured samples of smallpox, anthrax ,etc., that they didn't even know that they had until an inventory was completed?
The same CDC that blamed nurses for contracting Ebola, rather than address the problem and question their own established medical protocals ?
The same CDC that supports the political AGENDA "OPEN BORDERS" ..even though it defies "COMMON SENSE " !!
The same CDC that employs nurse Kaci Hickox, who refuses to self-quarantine in New Jersey, or in Maine, despite her having a slight fever upon arrival in the States ?
The same CDC that is offering legal representation by Obola administrations attorney to violate quarantine , and public safety ? The same CDC that had to change its established safety measures after saying N-95 masks were sufficient,
took two weeks to change protocal, and now state P-100 masks are now derermined to be safe ?
The same CDC that now reccomends staying 6 feet away from an Ebola patient, while denying any aerosol/airborne condition?
The same CDC that predicted doubling every month (R=1.5), when in fact it is doubling (R=2.0) every 18 - 21 days ?
The same CDC , yeah , I have heard of them
But I trust Medicines Sans Frontiers who has frontline Ebola expierience and suggests total bodily coverage, along with independent air supply.
The current CDC has become a political ally with the current Ebola strategy of "OPEN BORDERS" and denying "COMMON SENSE", so I no longer pay attention to them!
I note that the CDC has recently(within the last 3 days) changed protocol to expand distance from infected from three feet to a reccomended six feet distance
but it only took almost two months to change that medical protocol - that's government efficiency for you !
Now , don't you feel safer ?
I still trust Medicines Sans Frontiers(Doctors Without Borders) protocals because they have expierience, and are flexible enough to change from conditions that don't work !
For sure, not any politician. But my question would be “WHICH EXPERTS”? Are we talking about these “EXPERTS???” from the CDC? If those are the “EXPERTS???” you are talking about, then GOD HELP US ALL. Those people have sold their souls to this administration. They’d rather boil their children in oil, than go against this administration.
ex-spurts. too funny.
THAT'S the party line the LIV crowd are always asked to swallow on November Tuesdays…
Of course I recognize my own words.
Is your belief, then, that the scientists who study Ebola in the lab lie to the CDC about the biology of Ebola? Do you believe that the many health care workers who have traveled to Africa periodically for the last 40 years to assist with outbreaks are lying to the CDC about Ebola? Do you believe that all of these experts have lied in the thousands of articles since 1977 they have published in the scientific journals about Ebola?
I do not see any statement that the CDC has made that is in any way contradictory to the data that the experts who know Ebola have published. Thus, either the experts are lying, or the CDC is presenting factual information. It makes no sense for the experts to lie--especially considering that no one who works in the field ever expected Ebola to suddenly become newsworthy. I truly cannot understand all of the conspiracy-mongering about this.
Also, the CDC guidelines on infection control are quite comprehensive. Is it the CDC's fault that the nurses were not trained adequately? Isn't that the responsibility of their employer?
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