Post by 3mmargaret on Oct 27, 2014 1:43:04 GMT
I know that between the news, panicked friends, and your own newsfeed, you all are sick of hearing about Ebola by now. However, it is a huge story in the world right now, especially here in the US now that there have been patients on American soil. There is no doubt that safety regulations and preventative measures are crucial and should leave no room for leaks, but Friday afternoon Governors of New Jersey and New York Chris Christie and Andrew Quomo announced that they would be instating a mandatory 3-week quarantine for people who have had close contact with anyone carrying Ebola in Liberia, Guinea, or Sierra Leon – is this taking it too far?
In the first place, people would be quarantined based on interviews conducted in airports. While stamps in passports reveal who has visited the infected countries, it would be possible to lie convincingly and escape quarantine. It could result in confining honest people instead of real case risks. This should be considered, but it is nowhere near as important as the fact that there is no evidence that there is any danger of a widespread Ebola outbreak in this country. The only two people who have caught it have been nurses, and they’ve recovered. The only person who died was the man who gave it to them in Dallas (due to a lack of caution in his healthcare), and that is only because when he first went to the hospital upon developing his first symptoms, he was turned away. He got worse at home, and returned to the hospital to be admitted when the disease had already progressed too far for him to be saved. Ebola is only contagious after symptoms show, and the man in Dallas lived at home with his girlfriend and her family after being sent home by the hospital. He was contagious at that point, but even the people he lived in close proximity with did not develop the disease. One man in NYC is not going to spread it to any of the millions of strangers who live here.
This new rule would also diminish the number of doctors who volunteer to help in the infected countries. The USA has no risk of an outbreak, but those African countries are experiencing the worst of it. They need more trained and able doctors, and we have them. If they know they are only giving up their time, salary, and safety to come back and be treated like criminals instead of thanked, why would they go? They are being deterred from doing heroic work.
CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE: www.cnn.com/2014/10/26/health/new-jersey-quarantined-nurse/index.html
Kaci Hickox is the first victim of this new policy, and she is furious. She has been asymptomatic ever since her arrival, and has tested negative for Ebola twice. She said, “I feel like my basic human rights have been violated." Among many of her other arguments, one stuck out to me: a politician with no medical merit determined her imprisonment. Shouldn’t public heath officials make a decision like this?
In the first place, people would be quarantined based on interviews conducted in airports. While stamps in passports reveal who has visited the infected countries, it would be possible to lie convincingly and escape quarantine. It could result in confining honest people instead of real case risks. This should be considered, but it is nowhere near as important as the fact that there is no evidence that there is any danger of a widespread Ebola outbreak in this country. The only two people who have caught it have been nurses, and they’ve recovered. The only person who died was the man who gave it to them in Dallas (due to a lack of caution in his healthcare), and that is only because when he first went to the hospital upon developing his first symptoms, he was turned away. He got worse at home, and returned to the hospital to be admitted when the disease had already progressed too far for him to be saved. Ebola is only contagious after symptoms show, and the man in Dallas lived at home with his girlfriend and her family after being sent home by the hospital. He was contagious at that point, but even the people he lived in close proximity with did not develop the disease. One man in NYC is not going to spread it to any of the millions of strangers who live here.
This new rule would also diminish the number of doctors who volunteer to help in the infected countries. The USA has no risk of an outbreak, but those African countries are experiencing the worst of it. They need more trained and able doctors, and we have them. If they know they are only giving up their time, salary, and safety to come back and be treated like criminals instead of thanked, why would they go? They are being deterred from doing heroic work.
CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE: www.cnn.com/2014/10/26/health/new-jersey-quarantined-nurse/index.html
Kaci Hickox is the first victim of this new policy, and she is furious. She has been asymptomatic ever since her arrival, and has tested negative for Ebola twice. She said, “I feel like my basic human rights have been violated." Among many of her other arguments, one stuck out to me: a politician with no medical merit determined her imprisonment. Shouldn’t public heath officials make a decision like this?