The White House was correct this weekend to pressure New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to change their short-sighted, misguided Ebola quarantine policies, which are more likely to harm than help the citizens of their states.
President Obama, of course, has only himself to thank for the governors taking matters into their own hands. The current federal policy, which as far as I can tell is for those who have been exposed to Ebola patients to monitor themselves, is clearly insufficient, and the government’s approach to Ebola has been shifting constantly in response to events. Obama is late on this one too, convening a gathering of top administration officials Sunday to figure out a policy.
And clearly, a travel ban on foreigners entering the country from the affected countries, opposed by Obama, is in order.
But the administration is correct about that health workers coming from West Africa should not be quarantined. Health workers who return from fighting Ebola in Africa should be forcibly monitored, with their health status checked several times a day. If they don’t agree, then they should be quarantined. But not otherwise. Because . . .
- THE BEST WAY TO STOP EBOLA IS TO STOP IT IN AFRICA. If you tell health workers from the United States that they will be quarantined upon return for 21 days, they are less likely to go to Africa. It’s already major big sacrifice. Making them pariahs upon their return and totally disrupting their lives will harm efforts to combat the illness over there, thus making it more likely it will rage like a wildfire and come over here, possibly after having mutated to become more communicable. If you are scared of Ebola, you should be VERY scared of us doing less to fight it while it is still difficult to transmit.
- Ebola is in fact difficult to get. I have seen no evidence that Ebola is communicable as long as people are not showing symptoms, and none so far that it can be spread via the air like flu, unless of course someone sneezes on you, a possibility that is too easily dismissed by the “you can’t get it on a bus” crowd. But non-symptom showing health workers who have treated Ebola patients are not a danger.
- What are we going to do with healthcare workers in the United States who treat Ebola? They are clearly at elevated risk for the disease. Are we going to quarantine them until the outbreak subsides in six months or a year?
Obama should not just push back on these governors, he should overrule them.
Don’t get me wrong, there are usually few things worse in my book than the federal government, especially this federal government trumping the states.
But containing the spread of Ebola is an imperative involving the health of all Americans, not just those in New Jersey and New York or Illinois and Florida, which are instituting similar quarantines. The president should make a determination that combating Ebola in Africa is a national security exigency that trumps the calculations of local officials.
93 thoughts on “Obama Gets It Right on the Quarantine”
I have a FB friend who was born in Nigeria and did his medical training there. He is a physician (now in this country) specializing in high-risk pregnancies in NJ. He is very liberal in his political beliefs (loves Obama & Hillary.) Here is a portion of what he posted about the doctor who rode the subway and went bowling prior to being diagnosed with Ebola….” All who care for Ebola victims should be placed in a mandatory quarantine until proven to be Ebola free!” He is also not sure that we know exactly HOW Ebola is spread.
Tweet of the Day:
Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend to SecDef Chuck Hagel all troops returning from West Africa undergo a mandatory 21-day quarantine.
Fox News Pentagon correspondent Justin Fishel
Sadie thanks for posting this information. I heard this a little while ago on the car radio. I was just getting ready to pull it up online.
The troops will be sent to Italy for 21 days, before they can come back to the USA. I don’t know how the Italians are taking this – it’s OK to send our guys there but not home?
Everybody is getting too soft on the quarantine too quickly – if you have to inconvenience people who may be at risk – do it!
Remember that twit Dr. in NYC thought he was OK?
Until someone can explain how careful professional healthcare providers contracted this disease, then everyone who has been in contact with, or cared for anyone with ebola should be quarantined until it’s proven they are not infected too.
The doctor who spent his return to the US by visiting and exposing this virus to as many people as possible for one man is the poster person for involuntary quarantine.
This isn’t a PC issue, nor is it a constitutional issue, it’s a human issue.
agreed. It’s incorrect to say it’s hard to get, if nurses and doctors who are were protective gear have gotten it.
To me that means that anyone can get it, with or without safety procedures, in certain circumstances.
Check out the 60 Minutes segment on the nurses…I blogged this today.
http://healthsass.blogspot.com
(No–I make no money from listing this–Google keeps it all.)
I tried to comment on your site Star and it was like trying to pull an elephant through a knothole.
Logged in on WP as AFVet and evidently “I don’t own that identity”.
Oh really ? I’ve had it for years.
Funny, and the ‘type the text’ issue is too small for me to see.
BTW,…I liked your post.
Sorry–it did not look like that on my screen…technology!
You mentioned keeping the robots out, you are.
I have had trouble using blogspot sites in the past, that’s why I prefer WordPress.
I can get on Denise’s site no problem.
I allow all comments. I despise WordPress.
This site–Wordpress–look at all the trouble! I allow anon etc. I go thru every AM and peel off the spam.
I got curious about your trouble and not to garbage up Keith’s with this, there was a CAPTCHA on my comments which I never put there–when I checked again–it was gone! Sigh. Someone hand me a grenade.
Star I just watched the 60 Mins interview with the nurses. Thank you for providing it.
Kaci Hickox per her resume is a current employee of the CDC. She worked for doctors with out borders over 2 years ago. So what was a CDC worker doing working for DWOB now. Was she? Or is this some psyc opp for the CDC? This does not pass the smell test.
Look her up on Linkedin and see what I mean. She has been working for the CDC for the last 2.5 years.
Obola does not want to restrict any travel and this looks to be a set up to help that agenda.
She has deleted her account on LinkedIn and Google has scrubbed it from their cache files. Interesting, isn’t it?
Hmm very interesting.
It was there yesterday! This has to be spook op then! This totally supports obola’ s agenda.
The health version of Sandra Fluke.
Completely and utterly disagree. Health workers who have dealt with this–of all people–should know the need for caution and accept Q as part of the job–even demand it! Watch that 60 Minutes segment I mentioned–those people were heroes and are self-monitoring like mad. Others, apparently, have been less zealous.
I do not think we will have a big outbreak here–but there will be more cases and I am skeptical of the no symptoms/no danger thing and even of the 21 days–Drexel Univ has questioned the latter. Let’s be smart even if it’s a sacrifice. I wrote several weeks ago that I had reported on quarantines a few yrs ago and they were debating whether the govt could SHOOT someone who left a Q facility. This is serious stuff.
And I completely and utterly AGREE with you on this. Any further word on the 5 year old?
Preliminary test results are expected with the next 12 hours. The family members of the 5 yr. old are being quarantined in their apartment.
http://www.foxnews.com
This posted about an hour ago.
x2 And local officials have as much obligation to protect their citizens as the President. I have no faith in this federal government to do anything to protect the American people.
What if the 21 day isolation was at a Club Med, all expenses paid?
I was thinking that–maybe a luxury hotel–but who would go to it after…Also they could infect each other…I wonder if ankle bracelets would do it–more supervision, less self-administered.
WTF Keith? If these people want to go over to Africa, they need to accept the fact that they will be quarantined upon return.
I agree with you, and sorry to say, they will just have to consider it part of their sacrifice. I admire them for what they are doing but we have to have strict rules which we do not bend, even for them.
But, as Keith said, the problem and arguments could have been solved–and still can be solved–with a commercial travel ban on the affected countries.
x2
Hold on a second, Keith. Five days ago, the White House left it up to the States to decide what to do. Yet now that a State has actually done this, the White House is up in arms about it? This is yet another demonstration of the complete lack of leadership as well as the superfluous incompetence in our Executive Branch of government.
Have you ever wondered why Obama always seems to err on the wrong side of common sense ?
It’s the “Flip-Flop Special” – the admin. and every dept in and out of it are using glue and guesses. The quarantine flip flop pretty much mirrors every decision made in the style of “I was for the war in Iraq before I was against it” Kerry.
“glue and guesses”.
Like that !
Glue? I think at this point this admin and its “leader” are holding things together with the gum Barry chomps on when he’s not able to smoke.
x2
As a child I contracted scarlet fever and the mumps at the same time. I was deathly ill and after the doctor made a house call (remember those?), my mother, brothers (who also came down with mumps), and I were quarantined at home. My father, who had never had mumps and who was at work when the quarantine went into effect, was not allowed to come home until we were all well.
That was in 1960 and we managed to survive, even with our front door taped with a big orange ribbon across it. I guess we weren’t special enough snowflakes to “protest” the county health department’s treatment of us. Thinking back, we watched cartoons on TV all day and didn’t mind not going to school ;)
Mumps can render men sterile–another serious deal.
At that point there were four of us kids & mom had had a hysterectomy so no sterility worries. I think our dad just didn’t care to be cooped up in the house with us & he preferred going to work rather than helping our mom out. His brief stay at a local motel was probably like a vacation.
I had scarlet fever also.
Along with mumps, chicken pox, and measles.
I am old enough to remember when a friend of my parents, way back in the 1950’s was diagnosed with TB. He spent a year and half at Devorah Hospital in NJ until he got a clean bill of health. AND neither his wife or his children could have personal contact with him.
I don’t care who you are, if you’ve been in the Ebola zone, you should be quarantined.
I also do not think we are “making a pariah” of them–they have to understand this even better than we do.
My dad worked in the polio wards as a resident–and I got polio–he always felt horrible…Somehow that virus went home with him–or else I got it from a drinking fountain or someplace–the swimming pools were closed.
You have to balance this nurse’s threats to sue with the two doctors not really self-regulating themselves. Running around NYC on the subway, going bowling, breaking quarantine to go out for fast food?
It’s a question of balancing rights: the rights of people to walk around freely v. the rights of people not to catch a fatal disease.
From the earlier thread: Effing Commie Muslim-Appeasing Bastard.
Yeah, we get it, Mandy–have you noticed it’s not catching on?
Anagrams longer than five letters should be banned!
♥♥♥ ☺ ♥♥♥ – I love free speech!
Or speech we are free to spurn.
Yes, Star. You are free to spurn!
Will spurn later if I have time…LOL.
Use it while you/we can.
Just catching up on news, and I read that Dem’s want to close down DRUDGE.
Are you talking about the FEC vote on sites that link to YouTube political ads?
I think that is what I saw on Drudge,…..but don’t get them started.
And after that,…any other conservative site.
I have to disagree with you, Kieth.
Anyone who went over there to help keep people healthy is, by definition, not selfish and should accept another 21 days of quarantine to keep everyone safe over here.
Not sure why this one complained.
” I have seen no evidence that Ebola is communicable as long as people are not showing symptoms”. Yes, but the symptoms come on rather quickly, Keith. Also, the idea of a 21 day quarantine is a joke. Research has found that men who have recovered from Ebola have the virus still in their semen 40 days AFTER contracting the disease. This info comes directly from Dr.Peter Piot, the Dr. who isolated the 1st case of Ebola and gave the virus it’s name. Ebola is a river in Sudan.
Voila! The difference between medical advice and menial advice from the admin.
I’m not posting this to malign Keith in any way, shape or form. I think Keith is a great guy and we’re definitely on the same side. I just happen to be privy to knowledge that Keith hasn’t seen as yet.
And, the symptom of fever is subjective. A temperature of 98.6 is not normal for everyone.
And that ebowling guy was feeling “sluggish” but still went out. If these people don’t have common sense, we need to have it for them!
The symptoms come on rather frighteningly quick. When is the split second when you are asymptomatic and then become symptomatic?
I have to respectfully disagree with Mr Koffler and disrespectfully disagree with Obama. The simple fact that we are even having this conversation demonstrates that the strain or strains of Ebola that are causing this massive epidemic are far more easily transmitted than previous outbreaks. The fact that well trained Doctors and nurses from Western aid groups are getting infected confirms this. Now that the epidemic has surged to over 10,000 cases, it is far, far beyond the capability of even US and European health care workers to treat the victims. The only hope is to implement strict quarantine to contain the virus within the various households, villages, neighborhoods, cities and countries that are currently infected. Keeping the virus contained in Africa while we develop treatments and vaccines is infinitely preferable to well intentioned but futile efforts to treat the victims.
Edit: One interesting fact I forgot to mention>> It has been observed through research that Ebola can survive for several days on a dried out surface (such as a bathroom sink, kitchen counter, etc.).
Or a voting machine,…..
Cuomo and Christie have already won this battle. They will force Obama to make a decision. Everything you say is true Keith about needing to cure and contain in Africa. Thus, we certainly do need to heed incentives and disincentives for people willing to be part of the cure. But human nature is that some people who know better will not take it seriously. And people who know next to nothing will opine because CDC has left a complete vacuum of protocol and information here, despite CDC costing us $7 billion a year and despite this challenge being central to their Mission.
If you recall 2008 or any of the multiple crises between then and now, Obama simply does not act. He waits-and-sees. Sometimes this works out for him, as when McCain suspended his campaign and was ridiculed while Obama looked calm (although without leadership or ideas). Cuomo and Christie will force him to act. If the final solution is somewhere in the middle then I will thank Cuomo and Christie for forcing Obama to the table and spurring (finally) a constructive debate.
A deep-sea diver does not rush to the surface. They stop several times at depths to decompress. That is not an imposition but rather something they do for their own health. Ebola needs a similar decompression period before the healthcare worker is allowed back into society. As we learn more about it we can adjust the guidance. Until then, better safe than sorry. Let’s negotiate a fair way to decompress without risk to others. If obama can do his job on the Vineyard, surely we can setup Skype and ways for doctors to get back to work while they decompress.
CDC has dropped the ball despite very lavish funding. They have totally failed to be proactive here, and that failure cost the initial two workers catching the disease. Thank goodness the two nurses seem to be ok.
I thank the doctors and nurses trying to help. I also thank Cuomo and Christie for giving CDC and Obama the swift kick they needed.
I am looking forward to the “hug” photo when Samantha Powers returns from her tour of Western Africa. She’s making a pit stop in Belgium on her way back to the states.
Samantha Power cannot be adequately decontaminated.
I would support quarantining Samantha Power . . .
x200
I read somewhere that Samaritan’s Purse, who Dr. Brantly works or worked for, quarantines their doctors before allowing them to return to the US. If that is true, why doesn’t Doctors Without Borders do the same?
As for Ms. Hickox, something about her story just doesn’t add up.
She didn’t know about the mandatory quarantine because she was flying for two days.
Ahh…she sells bridges as well.
The quarantine was announced before she got here yet after she left Africa.
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20141025-nurse-former-uta-student-is-quarantined-in-new-jersey-despite-testing-negative-for-ebola.ece
http://www.dallasnews.com/ebola/headlines/20141025-uta-grad-isolated-at-new-jersey-hospital-as-part-of-ebola-quarantine.ece
I know this sounds facetious–but is being irritable a symptom?
Depends on the time of the month.
I think she was aware there may be a quarantine.
From NY Times:
Ms. Hickox’s mother said she had sent her daughter a text message asking if she thought she would be detained when she returned home: “She texted back: LOL that’s not going to happen.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/nyregion/nurse-in-newark-tests-negative-for-ebola.html?_r=0
Oh, the inhumanity of it all. /sarc
Good question AZ. You may as well throw in WHO in the same basket of bozos.
She works for the CDC. http://gotnews.com/ebola-nurse-complaining-quarantine-left-wing-democrat-cdc-employee/ Obama’s CDC is against quarantining…hence…someone who works for CDC suing NJ.
AZ Granny,
I was just going to past the same. Samaritan’s Purse does not allow travel until after the quarantine. It’s a responsible action to take given so close proximity to patient’s infected with Ebola. I would think most responsible people would want to protect their families, friends and strangers from potential exposure.
http://weaselzippers.us/203678-you-can-initially-test-negative-but-have-ebola/
Dances, thanks for the link! I couldn’t remember where I read it.
By the way, these doctors and nurses without borders willingly go to places with horrible sanitation even without a deadly virus lurking around–I am sure some are half-sick all the time from the food and local fauna. They should not be strongarmed when they come back, but probably most will not be daunted by living in a temporary building of some sort, paid, and fed good Am food. I am assuming, yes–I don’t know for sure–but they have my admiration on what they put up with–at least so far.
Call me silly but…. I thought I heard today that US Armed Forces serving in West Africa will be sent to Italy to spend 21 days before returning to their duty in the USA. This applies to the National Guard troops recently sent to this region.
QUESTION: Why is it we quarantine our own troops ( in another country) for 21 days yet we don’t hold others to the same protocol?
Call me silly…..
H
Eleven currently are in quarantine.
They were not supposed to be anywhere near Ebola victims.
Is this another lie ?
Gosh tried to say “some” troops would not be in Ebola areas–example building a base in Senegal…but the implication was plenty would be in affeccted areas but not “taking care” of people. Well,it seems to be there is plenty of opportunity for exposure short of cleaning latrines.
They’re supposed to be building hospitals. I would imagine that involves contacts with locals, though.
So we’ll quarantine our military but not health care workers who treat dying patients. I don’t understand Obama’s logic.
Obama has no plan. He reacts daily. All the more reason for states to have something in place. And the military, pray that God is watching out for them, because no one in this Administration is.
“Making them pariahs upon their return and totally disrupting their lives will harm efforts to combat the illness over there,”
Are we making them pariahs or asking them to protect us here at home? I’m not sure why you load the emotional burden of the word “pariah” onto what is simply a precautionary measure.
And didn’t they “totally disrupt their lives” when they chose to to go Africa? Why should anyone who has been exposed to Ebola be bowling, picking up soup, flying in airplanes, planning weddings, riding subways, and the other things that medical professionals have done apparently because they were bored from staying at home or just couldn’t bear to have plans disrupted or tastes unindulged.
Just make it part of the planning — go to Africa, fight Ebola, come home, spend some time in quarantine to prevent SPREADING Ebola here in America. Why have these people be heroes in Africa and sources of infection in the USA?
I think for most of us, the quarantine represents “an abundance of caution.” Empty words? It wouldn’t be the first time.
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