Just in case anyone is unclear about what Kaci Hickox was facing this weekend, this is a link to a picture of her in the quarantine tent. She was sentenced to stay in this bare-bones tent for 21 days for the crime of maybe having a particular disease. There is a portable toilet but no showering facilities. Three weeks without a shower, oh yeah, that’s kind. No mental stimulation. No normal clothing.
Great reward for someone who had gone to Africa to actually do something constructive about this outbreak.
We can do better than this.
Even if we decide on mandatory quarantines we can do better than this.
“OMG EBOLA DO SOMETHING!”
“We are doing exactly what the protocols say.”
“OMG SOMEONE ELSE GOT SICK DO SOMETHING”
“We are doing exactly what the protocols…”
“OMG **KEEP THESE PEOPLE AWAY FROM US!"
“Look, there is no evidence that…”
"LISTEN YOU INCOMPETENT TWIT DO SOMETHING TO ***KEEP THEM AWAY ***FROM US!”
“Damn… OK, OK, if you’re so het up let’s slap something together quickly and slapdashedly…”
Experts telling us how safe things are (and they are right mostly with important caveats).
Then we have a bunch of Homer Simpsons being stupid, naive, lazy, or trying show how safe things are by flipping random switches and beating on control rods for no good reason.
Throw in a few Mr Burns, Ken Brockmans, and a Smithers here and there for good measure.
It’s the product of panic and pandering to the lowest, dumbest denominator. I don’t mean people who don’t know better, I mean people who, even after being told repeatedly that they are not going to get Ebola unless they go paddling in the bodily fluids of an infected person.
Panic + speed = crap.
I hope she is able to sue them. Seriously, I’m not big on frivolous lawsuits, but that’s seriously wrong. We treat condemned killers better than that!
While we certainly don’t have a right to know, I kind of wish/hope that they choose to share whether or not they had sex when he came home. The panic seems to have died down somewhat since reports that Thomas’ family members didn’t catch it were made public. I suspect knowing that a couple even had sex and she didn’t catch it might ease fears a little more (although hopefully not too much, we do still need to take sensible precautions, and not having sex with infected people is still a good idea.)
Really glad to hear the authorities got their heads out of their asses. This was such a badly implemented half-baked plan. I still think some kind of group quarantine is needed. Much like what the military is doing with the troops coming back from helping the Ebola victims.
Whatever solution is developed needs to be well thought out and have the support of the medical community.
There’s no reason to quarantine anyone. An infected person doesn’t start shedding the Ebola virus until they are pretty sick. If you were someone potentially exposed to Ebola and you were to start showing symptoms, I’d imagine you’d get to treatment pretty damn fast. The potential of a gruesome and, I can only assume, painful death is pretty strong motivation for people to get help.
Per the article, the troops are taking their own temperatures, socializing with each other, have access to phones, internet, and exercise equipment, and are evidently still having to do their jobs (the military, like any other government job, includes a lot of bureaucratic and administrative type stuff.)
Is that why she’s freaking out and trying to sue? No wonder. I had thought she was selfish and stupid for trying to break quarantine. I mean, why would a nurse who helps people want to willingly expose, even by a tiny fraction of a chance, other people to Ebola? Besides, its 21 days of vacation, why not just take it? But if the conditions are bad, then I can see why she decided to speak out against it. Its not quarantine, that’s jail
Yeah, I have no idea why intelligent people chafe when idiots curtail their freedom of movement because they can’t take 5 minutes to read about methods of viral transmission on wiki.
This, and an extension to this. Our culture has (probably under no small influence from manufacturers and retailers) become a throwaway consumer culture. It’s buy, buy, buy the latest stuff from Conglom-O-Mart’s weekly super special sale and not running an efficient household or trying to be thrifty enough to not end up homeless after the next layoff cycle.
Not so long ago, great-grandma was sewing dresses out of old potato sacks and cutting up worn out dresses to make socks and washcloths. Grandma turned out fine. Nowadays, we are reminded that homemade clothing is not certified by the American Child Safety Initiative Program of the National Textile Manufacturers and Retailers Council and could possibly not protect my daughter in certain cases of rampaging yak incidents. But then the tween dresses at Sav-O-Mart are made in dumpy third-world countries and have been yak-proofed with who knows what impure chemicals from the floor of a sweatshop. But they are 20% off this Saturday only at Sav-O-Mart! Good thing Bendoverbank gave me a credit limit increase this summer. Anyone know where I put my Escalade keys? I junked mom’s old Civic because it doesn’t have the Protecto-Earth super emissions reduction system. I’m a really good boy.
Caller: I think my computer has ebola and I think it gave it to me.
Me: your computer may have a virus, but it did not infect you with ebola
Caller: but how do you know it didnt.
Me: because computer viruses do not infect people.
Caller: well shouldnt you at least check, what if my computer is infected
Me: I am more than happy to check your computer for viruses
Caller: including ebola
Me: your computer does not have ebola
Caller: so you wont check?
Me: we can handle any computer virus situation.
Caller: including ebola?
Me: yes
Caller: so how do you handle an ebola infected computer?
Me: like any other virused computer
Caller: so you have your guys in haz mat suits and masks when they work on it
Me: yes
Caller: can I see how they do that.
Me: no sir it takes years of training to safely handle virus infected computers, I cannot let you into the work area.
Caller: ok I guess I will bring it down.
Me: we will be ready
Im sure he will be disappointed when the haz mat suited techs do not meet him at his car.
