http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/10/27/americas-ebola-cure-rate-is-fantastic-but-thats-not-what-has-governors-worried/?singlepage=true
"... It’s not the prognosis of recovery that has governors and local officials concerned. It is the response that must follow each positive Ebola test, and the strain that individual cases put on hospitals.When Spencer was diagnosed with Ebola, officials in New York had to retrace every step he had taken since he returned from West Africa, where he was treating Ebola patients and contracted the virus. That is a time-consuming, tense and expensive process, potentially costing hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per day. People who have had close contact with each Ebola patient must be found and then monitored for symptoms as well. In Spencer’s case, his fiancee and two friends have been quarantined. That’s just for one victim. An outbreak of just a handful of victims could strain resources just in tracking down others who may have been exposed and monitoring them.
If a state fails to fully track an Ebola victim’s movements and outbreak occurs, they will be rightly accused of negligence.
The honor system has not and will not work to stop Ebola. It has already failed. Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who was exposed to Ebola in his native country and then brought it to Dallas, lied on his Liberian exit form and then according to his Dallas nurses lied again about his Ebola exposure during his first visit to the hospital.
Medical doctors and so-called experts have denounced the state-level quarantines, but two doctors and a nurse have exposed others to Ebola after their own exposures. Both Dr. Nancy Snyderman of NBC and Dr. Spencer exposed others by violating quarantine and in Spencer’s case, using mass transit. Dallas nurse Amber Joy Vinson did as well, flying between Dallas and Cleveland, OH, on commercial aircraft despite showing symptoms.
The Centers for Disease Control is hardly in a position to complain about the state-level quarantines. It cleared Vinson to fly on those commercial aircraft.
Vinson has recovered from Ebola, but her flights exposed dozens of people, each of whom had to be tracked down, and their steps retraced. Schools in Texas and Ohio were impacted by her decision to fly commercially and possibly expose other passengers, who in turn could have exposed their family and friends.
Each person who does test positive for Ebola puts a severe strain on local hospitals. It takes about 20 full-time medical personnel to treat just one Ebola patient. It also takes vast amounts of hazmat gear. Ebola patients must be isolated from all other patients, further straining hospital facilities and resources. Expenses add up very quickly. The two Dallas nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital had to be moved to other hospitals that are fully equipped to tackle Ebola. The United States only has four such hospitals, and the Dallas outbreak made it clear that even well-equipped hospitals in major cities were not ready when the first Ebola victim arrived.
Between Duncan’s alleged lies and the doctors’ and nurses’ failure to self-monitor and self-quarantine, and the federal government’s stubborn insistence that any travel ban will be counter-productive, plus the difficulty and expense of treating victims, states are left to defend themselves. So they will."
The feds can make a binding commitment to bear all state and local government costs incurred as a result of Ebola or expect state governors to use all their independent powers here. Federalism cuts both ways.
Note that in World War Two the British government decided to compensate all individuals, businesses and local governments for costs incurred as result of German bombing. This decision was made by Prime Minister Winston Churchill either during the Battle of Britain, or the Blitz. I remember reading about it in his six volume history/memoir of World War Two.
The US government will eventually do the same with Ebola. It's only a matter of time. As an example, the commercial airline, insurance and travel/resort industries will collapse if Ebola gets going in the US. Medical and life insurers haven't factored in the premiums to cover the claims payments for Ebola treatment and death. Etc. Big industries like that will get their way, either with taxpayer-paid subsidies, exemptions, or federalization of all the risks. My money is on the latter.
Which would even be the right thing to do. It's the insane federal "admit everyone" immigration policy which drives the short-term threat, so the federal government should pay for all the expenses it imposes on the nation by that policy.
Churchill explained in his second volume that it was only fair that all the British taxpayers should bear the costs incurred by the nation as a whole from the war, as opposed to each individual resident, business and local government bearing their own costs of death, injury and destruction/loss of income from enemy bombing.
"Thus the burden would fall not alone on those whose homes or businesses were hit, but would be borne evenly on the shoulders of the nation."