I also voted no because of reading The Hot Zone - terrified me!
I voted “no” simply because I’m pretty much housebound and can’t see that changing even to help out in a health crisis.
If that weren’t the case, I’d be willing to do whatever I could. I’m of an age where I wouldn’t be risking as much as most of the population and I have no dependents, so it would make more sense for me to help than for younger people with families and potential to do so.
Perhaps somewhat off-topic but not entirely–it’s been a while since I’ve read John Barry’s The Great Influenza, but he mentions a hospital in Philadelphia where a medical student was placed in charge of an entire floor because so many doctors and nurses were sick.
I suspect that things would have to get about that bad before the authorities called for volunteers from the general population. And if the cause is Ebola, then society is circling the drain and there’s probably no point in volunteering. You would probably do more good in the long run by trying to isolate yourself and stay well.
I would not, because a panicking girl with no medical training who spends the entire time huddled in a corner terrified would be more of a hindrance than a help.
I’m not saying this because I have no medical training–I could probably figure out how to give a shot, mop a forehead, hold a hand, etc. But I know myself; those sorts of viruses scare me more than just about anything else.
Sorry. I’m not good enough.
Yes, I agree that if they resorted to volunteers within the US, the situation would be pretty major.
I’m amazed at the people who would volunteer. Big kudos to you brave souls!
I started a first responder course, did well on the book stuff, did well on the transport stuff (it was for Ski Patrol), but then they showed video of an actually injured person… even watching the video, every fiber in my body screamed “find someone else who cares.” It wasn’t a mild reaction, it was a startlingly strong realization that I cannot deal with injured people. I’d have better luck trying to force myself to jump from a tall building. (Oddly, I’d be the first to jump in on an injured animal.)
Now, add that to a virus that starts out ugly and then has been glamorized in the movies for just how ugly it can get… I’m squarely in the totally useless camp.
On the other hand… if you want me to go out in a driving snow storm or near tornado conditions to clear roads (and you paid my fuel), I’d be the first in line.
Okay, this made me think of another question. Say your region was isolated/quarantined and the general population of the area was dropping due to the virus. At what point would it make more sense for the authorities to say:
“DO NOT seek treatment and DO NOT leave your house. We’ll just wait this out and collect the survivors afterwards?”
Our society says that medical aid should be provided always. But, by telling the people to stay home for a set period of time, the virus itself will loose steam. (Assuming that a local alternate reservoir hasn’t been established in some way.) They could air drop supplies to individual houses using helicopters, so the quarantine could be enforced for an extended period of time.
Would people accept such a thing and comply? Would they accept troops paroling the roads to enforce such a thing (remember, a neighbor showing up at your door could infect your household). Short of ‘shoot to kill’, how could troops enforce a quarantine w/out becoming exposed themselves?
Yes. The Ebola Reston strain can be spread through airborne transmission. Fortunately that strain does not appear to infect humans.
The Zaire, Sudan, ivory Coast and Uganda strains seem to only be spread through bodily fluids. These do infect humans with varying mortality rates, occasionally in excess of 90% fatal.
Field work in the current outbreak will undoubtedly be carried out to ascertain if the current outbreak is identical to a prior strain.,
I might be inclined to volunteer if things got truly bad. This would only be a viable option if I did not live with my mother as she has MS and with her weakened immune system, its too much of a risk. I’d rather protect her than a thousand people. Cold but true.
Apparently this was an issue with one individual as recently as 2007, for an individual named Andrew Speaker. There were Senate hearings after the CDC slapped him with the first quarantine order in almost 50 years, for a rare highly drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis.
Some Ebola strains have a rather long incubation time, around 25 days. An effective quarantine would be a month or possibly longer.
In 2009, a lab worker in Hamburg suffered an Ebola needle stick injury and was quarantined, about a week IIRC. This lab worker was the first person given an experimental vaccine which was developed in a Canadian lab. She was working with a high mortality strain, probably EB Zaire.
The reality is that most regular hospitals are not prepared to deal with a disease of this type. And certainly not in a large number of patients. As the Reston strain experience taught us, filoviruses can go airborne. Some day an airborne strain may proliferate that is infectious to humans.
There are relatively few BL4 labs that are set up to work with such hazards. Positive pressure rooms and suits. Incinerators and other treatments on the exhaust gas. Multiple barrier isolation. We just do not have such in a typical hospital. Some hospitals may have a few isolation rooms for bone marrow transplant patients and the like. That is about as close to prepared as we can get for now.