I have no problem with the idea of a quarantine for people coming back from working with Ebola patients in Africa. I don't think it's hysteria and I dispute the claims of experts that there is "no problem" since carriers aren't contagious until they're showing symptoms. Nobody seems to be addressing the issue of what happens if someone becomes symptomatic whilst out in public. They're not going to magically disappear and reappear in a hospital isolation unit. 
 
Ebola hasn't been a problem in the US so far because we've managed to track and contain it. The problem arises when someone contracts it completely unawares and thinks their symptoms are just plain vanilla flu. What would have happened if Dr. Spencer's symptoms had started while he was out on the town? He was already feeling sluggish. If he'd started sweating a little on the subway, wiped his brow then touched a pole....then someone else comes along and touches that pole and scratches the corner of their eye...oy. Then a couple of weeks later that person, completely unaware that he's a carrier, starts feeling a little off. Meh, it's flu season. Figures he'll struggle into work anyway. Feels progressively worse throughout the day. Develops a fever, spreads a little sweat around the office and on his way home...what's the big deal right? It's only flu. This is how epidemics start and why it's so important to track and contain carriers. It's already ravaging much of West Africa, but small villages are one thing. Once it starts spreading in a city like New York among people who have no idea they have it, all bets are off. 
 
Until one of the "experts" can explain to me how it's not a problem when someone's symptoms come on in public, then I'll concede that quarantine isn't needed for Doctors Without Borders participants. Some of these people have no sense. It has now emerged that Dr. Spencer lied through his teeth initially, when asked if he'd been anywhere prior to calling the emergency services. It was only when they checked his Metrocard and his credit card bills that he was forced to admit that he'd been skipping merrily all over town. And his symptoms could have started at any time. 

dubdisciple

bitflipper
Have no idiot politicians gone on TV yet to demand shutting down all NYC airports? 

Not to show bias or judgment pro or con, but simply stating matter of factly.... Rightwing political pundits have been talking along those lines.  Not so much shutting the airports, but banning flights from West Africa.

I'm totally ok with banning flights from west Africa...until a good system is in place.

I'm totally ok with banning flights from west Africa...until a good system is in place.

 
I don't have a problem with that either, Clint.  I also don't have an issue quarantining people who have been in direct contact with ebola patients until they are confirmed to not have the dissease.  That's just common sense to me.  I don't need to be affiliated with either the right or left to look at common sense.  This dissease has about a 50% (or less) survival rate if not caught early and I feel it is reckless to not take that into consideration and gamble with other peoples lives. 
 
No panic here, still doing every day routines....and it was at my back door step.

sharke
Tell him you also know the guy who coined the word "gullible." 

I've always been amazed that the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary.

Now we have this nurse Kaci Hickox wh was in NJ and now in Maine refusing to remain in quarantine in Maine.
What a self centered, arrogant, uncaring person. If it were up to me I would black ball her from working in healthcare. I would certainly not let her care for me nor would I go to a doctor who employed her.
 
These people act as if they "care" but it looks to me like they just want something on their resume. They certainly don't care about people here. The "doctor" in NYC certainly didn't care about the people who own the bowling alley, the nurse from Texas didn't care about the bridal shop in Ohio, and this nurse in Maine doesn't care about any people or business she might hurt if she becomes sick. I'm sorry, but I do not see any evidence of caring for anyone but self.
 
Julien

jbow
Now we have this nurse Kaci Hickox wh was in NJ and now in Maine refusing to remain in quarantine in Maine.
What a self centered, arrogant, uncaring person. If it were up to me I would black ball her from working in healthcare. I would certainly not let her care for me nor would I go to a doctor who employed her.
 
These people act as if they "care" but it looks to me like they just want something on their resume. They certainly don't care about people here. The "doctor" in NYC certainly didn't care about the people who own the bowling alley, the nurse from Texas didn't care about the bridal shop in Ohio, and this nurse in Maine doesn't care about any people or business she might hurt if she becomes sick. I'm sorry, but I do not see any evidence of caring for anyone but self.
 
Julien

Well said.

In my opinion, 21 days of quarantine is a relatively small price to pay to minimize the chances for spreading a pandemic. I understand that such a quarantine could be an economic hardship for many who would be unable to work, but the impact of spreading the disease is far worse. I heard the nurse say that the quarantine period doesn't make medical/scientific sense and is politically motivated. I've also heard (but haven't verified) that 21 days may not be long enough. Governments have limited options for containing an outbreak. In my opinion, a quarantine is preferable to extermination.

UbiquitousBubba
In my opinion, 21 days of quarantine is a relatively small price to pay to minimize the chances for spreading a pandemic. I understand that such a quarantine could be an economic hardship for many who would be unable to work, but the impact of spreading the disease is far worse. I heard the nurse say that the quarantine period doesn't make medical/scientific sense and is politically motivated. I've also heard (but haven't verified) that 21 days may not be long enough. Governments have limited options for containing an outbreak. In my opinion, a quarantine is preferable to extermination.

yep. let's also quarantine everyone who works with flu, TB, HIV, CDiff, MRSA and Cubase...or we could just shoot them.

Good idea MGH... the same with illegal invaders coming across our southern border. Bullets are so much cheaper and more effective that fences. We should take whatever measures necessary to stop the actions of irresponsible or criminal people.
The problem with the possibility is different than flu (in case you have not noticed). If a person becomes infected and is out and about because they do not self quarantine, it affects many other people's lives and livelihood. There was the cruise ship that was denied the permit to dock in Mexico, the bowling alley that I don't know but I bet is suffering. People do not want to go where someone with ebola has been, it affects others in a very negative way. It is irresponsible and totally self centered.
 
Julien 

The comparison to flu is interesting, but not in a way that the people who bring it up were hoping to hear: the fact that the flu kills thousands of people every year is a good illustration of how destructive an epidemic can be. But flu deaths are generally limited to the elderly and the otherwise physically weak. Ebola is killing fit and healthy people. So imagine what would happen if it started spreading the same way as flu, ie people coming down with symptoms, figuring they'll just head on into work anyway and infecting everyone on the subway and in the office. We're talking death on a much larger scale. How anyone can contemplate that possibility and think "no big deal" is beyond me.

Being honest, I think people who take their flu out in public and sneeze all over buses and trains are incredibly selfish. They cost the country billions in lost work days and kill thousands. But for whatever reason, it's become almost socially "acceptable." Over time, the human and economic impact of flu has been comfortably blended into the social fabric as "one of those things." Imagine if the flu had just appeared now. Those deaths would not be considered so lightly, and sneezing all over a train would be frowned upon a whole lot more.

So we're faced with an outbreak of something new, something way more destructive than the flu. I wouldn't call the reaction "hysteria" so much as a perfectly rational desire to prevent possibly tens of thousands of deaths.