NOW THE STATES ARE TAKING IT UPON THEMSELVES TO ENACT QUARANTINES AND SCREENINGS.
THOSE WHO TRAVELED ON THE AIRPLANE WITH THE LAST DIAGNOSED NURSE HAVE STILL NOT ALL BEEN CONTACTED.
WE STILL DON'T KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE THE NEW YORK DOCTOR MAY HAVE INFECTED.
WE ARE LIKELY LOOKING AT HUNDREDS OF NEW INSTANCES OF MANDATORY QUARANTINE ALREADY.
WHILE SUCH QUARANTINE MEASURES ARE ABSOLUTELY SANE AND RATIONAL, QUARANTINES CAN BE ABUSED, AND MANY AMERICANS ARE WONDERING IF THIS IS JUST PREPARATION FOR SOMETHING BIGGER, MORE SINISTER, AS IN MARTIAL LAW BEING ENFORCED HERE.
Pentagon Orders 30-Member Ebola Response Team
According to Public Health Services Act (PL 78-410), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can step in if the quarantine does not contain the disease with the bounds of the state.
FEMA HAS ALWAYS ALLOWED FOR THE USE OF MILITARY TO HELP QUARANTINE AND/OR RELOCATE U.S. CITIZENS!
If needed, a presidential disaster declaration would drastically change the budget for emergency operations, evoking the Stafford Act (PL 100-707) through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
State governments can deploy the National Guard to enforce quarantine actions should they be necessary. The Guard’s biohazard units and resources could also help aid with the effort, according to an unnamed National Guard representative.
“We stand ready to support the needs identified by the U.S. government’s lead agencies,” the official added, saying that “the Guard is ‘actively involved’ in the planning process at both state and federal levels.”
Currently, state-controlled National Guard units each feature a 22-man biohazard unit that can work within that region.
WE MUST NOT IGNORE THE POSSIBILITY OF A PANDEMIC IN AMERICA'S NEAR FUTURE.AMERICA IS FAR MORE DENSELY POPULATED THAN MOST PLACES OF EBOLA OUTBREAK IN AFRICA.
100 UNDETECTED CASES HERE COULD EASILY INFECT A MILLION PEOPLE IN LESS THAN 3 WEEKS.
DOES THE DANGER OUTWEIGH AMERICA'S CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEE OF LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS?
SHOULD WE DEMAND OUR FREEDOM TO TRAVEL AS WE PLEASE IN FACE OF THREAT OF PANDEMIC?
THESE ARE HARD QUESTIONS.
SEEMS EACH STATE HAS ITS OWN IDEA ON THIS TOPIC.
THIS WEEK:
New York, New Jersey and Illinois announced mandatory 21-day quarantines for those arriving back in the United States after having direct contact with Ebola-infected individuals in West Africa.
In announcing the new quarantine mandates, New York and New Jersey said they will work to establish an interview and screening process to determine a person's risk level by considering where they traveled and their level of exposure to the virus.
"Depending on the risk level, a person could require mandatory 21-day quarantine, or at a government-regulated facility," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. "Low-risk would be regularly monitored for temperature and symptoms. Others will have a protocol developed to fit their particular circumstances."
States’ Moves Mark More Aggressive Tack Than Obama Administration
...Connecticut instituted involuntary 21-day quarantines Friday on health-care workers returning from West Africa.Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) has called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to adopt Connecticut’s standards for quarantine and isolation to protect the public from Ebola. “At airports and ports, there should be federal enforcement of quarantine requirements the state has put in place to ensure that men and women who may have been exposed to Ebola do not expose others to the virus,” he said. “At this point, these guidelines are another step in setting minimum standards, but even tougher protocols may be necessary.”
A senior [Obama] administration official said that prior to the states’ announcement, the administration had been looking carefully at policies pertaining to the return of health-care workers from West Africa. “In determining the right approach, we have put the health and safety of Americans first and foremost, and our deliberations have been informed by our most knowledgeable and experienced public health and Homeland Security professionals,” the official said.
Some lawmakers, meanwhile, called for such a mandatory quarantine and also for more clearly defined protocols for military personnel returning from Ebola-stricken countries. At a Friday hearing on Capitol Hill, Rep. Michael Turner (R., Ohio) said plans to monitor people at risk of contracting Ebola were inadequate if those people were allowed extensive public contact, including flying back to the U.S., during a period in which they could be sick. The issue was fueled by the news Thursday night that Craig Spencer, the 33-year-old New York physician who was found to have the disease, had had public contact before he reported being ill.
NO ONE SEEMS TO KNOW HOW MANY ARE WORKING IN THE INFECTED AREAS!
The exact number of volunteer doctors and aid workers now in the infected areas of Africa isn’t known. Some 686 U.S. troops are now stationed in West Africa, as part of a mission that could involve as many as 4,000 IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
Many are asked not to return to their medical practices or hospitals for 21 days after they come home to the U.S..21 days is SUPPOSEDLY the maximum incubation period for Ebola.
THEY KEEP SAYING 21 DAYS, BUT THE EBOLA VIRUS IS STILL PRESENT IN SEMEN AND IN BREAST MILK FOR ALMOST 3 MONTHS!
HOW CAN ITS PRESENCE THERE NOT INFECT OTHERS FOR THAT PERIOD OF TIME?
WHILE MANDATORY QUARANTINES MAY INDEED KEEP THE VIRUS FROM SPREADING, MANY NOW FEAR THOSE WITH SYMPTOMS MAY NOT COME FORWARD BECAUSE OF THE QUARANTINES.
"The new mandates are also worrisome since people in the general public, if included in mandatory quarantines, may be less likely to come forward if they have symptoms because such measures will increase the stigma surrounding the virus," Stephen Morse, an epidemiology professor at Columbia University said.
""If people are forced to quarantine for three weeks that means most of them will not be able to do any sort of work and that means essentially lost income."
Robert Glatter, an emergency medicine physician at Lenox Hill Hospital, located in New York City's Upper East Side remarked, "It's going to discourage health care workers from going out to the source, which is where we need to be."
But if we don't quarantine, the virus will spread FASTER than it did in Africa!
"Our region is a dense region," New York Gov. Cuomo said. "A ride on a train can affect hundreds of people. Several weeks of normal activity can affect several thousand individuals."
IMAGINE EVEN 100 CASES OF EBOLA WANDERING AROUND NEW YORK!
New York's first Ebola patient is Craig Spencer, a 33-year-old emergency physician being treated in an isolation unit at Bellevue Hospital Center after he tested positive for virus Thursday. He recently returned from Guinea where he volunteered for international health care group Doctors without Borders.
Saturday night, New York health officials said Spencer had entered the "next phase of his illness, as anticipated with the appearance of gastrointestinal symptoms." He is said to be awake and communicating.
The quarantine can be frightening as Kaci Hickox, a recently returned from Africa health care worker who was quarantined when she returned to the States writes, "I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa.. I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine."I FIND IT SAD THAT ALL NATIONS DON'T HAVE PROPERLY TRAINED PROFESSIONALS TO TAKE CARE OF THEIR OWN PEOPLE AND HAVE TO RELY ON OTHER NATIONS WHICH MAY BE SLOW IN RESPONDING OR DECIDE NOT TO RESPOND AT ALL. EVERY NATION SHOULD HAVE WELL-TRAINED MEDICAL STAFF TO DEAL WITH SUCH TERRIBLE THINGS.
HAVING SUCH WOULD ALSO DO MUCH STOP THE WORLDWIDE SPREAD OF THESE VIRUSES AS "INTERNATIONAL AID WORKERS" WOULD NOT NEED TO FLY INTO AND OUT OF COUNTRIES ANY LONGER.
MAYBE THE DAMNABLE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION COULD SPEND SOME OF ITS ANNUAL BILLIONS IN DONATIONS TO TRAIN PEOPLE IN ALL, A-L-L NATIONS TO BE AT THE READY TO RESPOND AT FIRST SIGNS OF THESE OUTBREAKS!
THE PROBLEM WITH QUARANTINE IS THAT PEOPLE MAY WALK AROUND WITH FEVER, AND ALL OTHER SYMPTOMS OF EBOLA, FOR DAYS BEFORE THEY SEEK MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS, AND EVEN THEN SOME WON'T BE PROPERLY DIAGNOSED, JUST LIKE THE MAN WHO DIED OF EBOLA IN DALLAS WAS NOT INITIALLY PROPERLY DIAGNOSED.
WHILE GOING ABOUT THEIR NORMAL ROUTINES, THESE INFECTED PEOPLE WILL HAVE SPREAD THE VIRUS TO OTHERS, WHO SPREAD THE VIRUS TO STILL OTHERS, AND THE WHOLE CYCLE REPEATS, SO QUARANTINE IS LIKELY NOT TO BE AS GRAND A MEASURE AS MANY THINK, BUT IT BEATS DOING NOTHING, IF THE REAL THREAT WARRANTS IT.
IF THIS IS WHAT WE ARE TOLD IT IS.
IF WE AREN'T JUST TESTING THE WATERS TO SEE HOW EASY IT WOULD BE TO QUARANTINE MILLIONS.
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