Let鈥檚 quarantine politicians
I don’t have Ebola.
I’m fairly certain you don’t either.
But, because all of the 24-hour news channels have gone all out with their Ebola coverage, I’m afraid it’ll jump right off my TV and right down my throat.
Am I wrong?
So far, there’s been a grand total of one Ebola death in the United States; four people who’ve been diagnosed with it, and only two cases of people who’ve contracted it on U.S. soil.
As I write this, the U.S. population is 319, 160,907 – with a net increase of one person per every 15 seconds.
In fact, the population increased by seven people from the time I started that last sentence, until the end of this one. (I type slowly)
But that’s six more people than have died from Ebola in the United States, since the disease was first diagnosed in 1976.
The national news channels have willing assistants helping them churn up Ebola hysteria – politicians.
Nobody can ignore medical science to make unverifiable political points like a Republican (or, uncharacteristically, at least one Democrat) with a desire to flex their “in the public interest” chops.
“Reports of illegal migrants carrying deadly diseases such as swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis are particularly concerning,” said Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) in a letter to the Centers for Disease Control.
There’s absolutely no evidence anything like that has ever occurred.
Another Republican, a former nurse, Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, recently suggested that the two nurses who contracted Ebola in a Dallas hospital may have gotten it in a way that medical scientists have strongly said can’t happen.
“When the nurses using protective gear, how has this happened? It tells me something has happened here. You said a couple of times this has not gone airborne. Are you looking for other mutations? I know how nurses are. They followed precautions,” Ellmers said.
The CDC was quick to knockdown that argument. “We are confident this was not an airborne transmission,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden.
Not only that the World Health Organization added that, “Speculation that Ebola virus disease might mutate into a form that could easily spread among humans through the air is just that: speculation, unsubstantiated by any evidence,” the WHO concluded.
Ellmers had no contact with the two nurses. The World Health Organization and the CDC has had years to study the disease.
Just who do you believe?
Unsubstantiated political statements are one thing. Unproductive political actions are something completely different.
Enter the Republican governor of New Jersey – Chris Christie, and the Democratic governor of New York – Andrew Cuomo.
They hatched a plan to place every health care worker who returns to their states from West Africa in forced, government-regulated quarantines.
Science be damned. Politics, especially involving two men who just may run for president in 2016 – full speed ahead.
The result of their joint edict was disastrous.
The first person who got snared, Nurse Kaci Hickox, was stuck in an unheated, isolated tent. Even though she tested negative for Ebola twice, including once through the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, she was essentially imprisoned.
Granted, she’d had an elevated temperature, but that subsided quickly.
“For the first 12 hours, I was in shock. Now I’m angry,” Hickox said.
Who could blame her? She’d risked her own life to save the lives of others, yet her only reward upon returning to the United States was to face an overly-broad political swipe of a pen.
There was an immediate backlash.
Hickox threatened a lawsuit.
And, once again, medical professionals were forced to respond to overeager politicians.
“This approach, however, is not scientifically based, is unfair and unwise,” said the CDC’s Dr. Jeffrey Drazen. “The governors’ action is like driving a carpet tack with a sledgehammer: it gets the job done but overall is more destructive than beneficial,” he concluded.
Both governors relented and allowed Hickox to go home to Maine, where she’s been in a self-imposed quarantine.
Meanwhile, is there a way to impose a quarantine on meddling politicians?
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net