dagblog - Comments for "Public Service Announcement: Ebola and New York City"

Fuggeaboutit Part II: it's a

artappraiser — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:17:33 +0000

In reply to Public Service Announcement: Ebola and New York City

Fuggeaboutit Part II: it's a great NYC-style opportunity! Taking "waste management" ( ala Tony Soprano) to a whole new level:

For Man in Ebola Virus Cleanup, a History of Fraud
By Benjamin Mueller,New York Times, Nov. 1, 2014

Subtitle: Hey, there's gold in this here Ebola thing!

If you are relying on Issa,

rmrd0000 — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 19:54:09 +0000

In reply to Procedures for screening and

If you are relying on Issa, Paul, Gohmert, etc., to do things based on science, you are in for a rude awakening.

Jenny McCarthy, et al were able to scare people out of getting children vaccinated. The end result was flares of infections among school age children.

Congress and some in the public are not science-based.

Just checked the NYTimes home

artappraiser — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 19:19:03 +0000

In reply to Is there a civil liberties

Just checked the NYTimes home page and the headline is "breaking" news on this whole thing:

White House Presses States to Reverse Ebola Quarantine

By MARC SANTORA and MICHAEL D. SHEAR, New York Times, 43 minutes ago

The Obama administration has pushed the governors of New York and New Jersey to reverse their decision ordering all medical workers returning from West Africa who had contact with Ebola patients to be quarantined, an administration official said.

I doubt that it occurred to

barefooted — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 19:14:37 +0000

In reply to Governor of NY is forced to

I doubt that it occurred to the nurse currently quarantined that she had an option to refuse. If she had, it's unlikely that she would have been released. Since, by Cuomo's admission, they haven't considered that possibility, what would the "idiots" have done?

I dislike the term "slippery slope", but this reeks of it.

Here's a report on what they

artappraiser — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 19:08:28 +0000

In reply to On a serious level, this MSF

Here's a report on what they are doing now:

NYC Health Department Monitoring Residents Returning From West Africa
By Jillian Jorgensen, New York Observer, 10/24/14 2:35pm

....in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control, which is already tracking and screening anyone flying into John F. Kennedy and Newark-Liberty airports from West African nations....

New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said it was formerly procedure that the CDC asked those returning to “voluntarily monitor” — to check their temperature, even if they had no symptoms.

“Then that changed to twice a day, checking your temperature. And now, we’re not only going to give that recommendation to them, we’re going to call them,” Dr. Bassett said. “And we have the responsibility — we at the New York City Health Department, we for New York City residents — but this is going to be done across this nation. So that’s what we mean by active monitoring. It’s not only voluntary — we actually reach out to the person and talk to them about what temperatures they’re measuring.”

Mr. de Blasio added: “Daily contact.”....

In the end legally doesn't it boll down to this, because it's about border crossing: if you've got business in one of these countries, but don't want to be subjected to phone calls from and possibly visits from the health department, don't leave the U.S.A.?

Our civil liberties are already impinged upon every time we pass through immigration/customs. Immigration and customs departments are there to prevent people or things harming a country. Citizens get preferential treatment but are still subjected to inspection, show of papers, etc.

Governor of NY is forced to

artappraiser — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 18:50:09 +0000

In reply to Is there a civil liberties

Governor of NY is forced to agree with you:

Andrew Cuomo admits Ebola quarantine policy could be unenforceable
New York Daily News, Oct. 26

Gov. Cuomo acknowledged his tough quarantine policy for health-care workers returning from West Africa was somewhat toothless and possibly unenforceable.

“Could you have a hostile person who doesn’t want to be quarantined?” the governor asked Saturday during a campaign swing through Queens. “I suppose you could. But that hasn’t been the case yet.”

The governor said officials had never considered whether people refusing to go along with the order could face prosecution or arrest.

“It’s nothing that we’ve discussed, no,” he said.

Pressed on where the passengers would spend their 21-day quarantine, Cuomo made it sound almost voluntary.

“Some people could be quarantined in a hospital if they wanted to be,” he suggested...

I would keep in mind, though, that those most likely to be carriers are people who have already volunteered to help fight the disease.

I haven't read a lot on it, but I got the impression that the nurse that argued felt that the people she was dealing with were idiots about the whole issue. And that brings up the whole interesting topic where we have civil liberties partly because government by the majority,even when well-intentioned, has been known in history to become idiotic. (I.E., big government can help people during a major depression, it can also efficiently send Japanese-Americans to internment camps.) I noted in looking up the above story that Fox News was covering Cuomo's admission with headlines.

Is there a civil liberties

barefooted — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 18:13:52 +0000

In reply to The nurse quarantined in New

Is there a civil liberties issue here? I question whether states have a legal right to impose a forced quarantine on citizens showing no signs of the virus.

Procedures for screening and

NCD — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 16:03:01 +0000

In reply to The nurse quarantined in New

Procedures for screening and quarantining returning Americans returning from treating Ebola victims SHOULD BE written into FEDERAL legislation quickly and fairly decided based on science/CDC testimony BY OUR do-nothing but play politics shills in CONGRESS. That's their f***ing JOB.

There should be a straight forward national standard for how to handle these brave people.....this epidemic is not ending anytime soon.

For those who are forced to wait in quarantine a flat tax free payment of $20,000 for their time could be paid as provided by Congress. 100 such cases would cost a mere $2 million. Provision to avoid fraud would of course have to be implemented by verification of persons by NGO's.

Of course, it's much easier and politically more advantageous for Republicans to do nothing, spread endless scary scenarios, blame Obama, and say government is the problem.

The nurse quarantined in New

rmrd0000 — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 15:33:56 +0000

In reply to My Great Grandmother lost two

The nurse quarantined in New Jersey tested negative for Ebola. The only thing the prospect of quarantine will do is discourage health care workers from going to the source of the disease, the only way to stop the epidemic. Why go to the involved areas if you will be imprisoned on return? If you are worried about spread of disease, you should be against mandatory quarantine of health workers.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/10/25/358795868/health-care-wor...

It is more likely that a flu

Verified Atheist — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 12:25:15 +0000

In reply to My Great Grandmother lost two

It is more likely that a flu virus will morph into something far more deadly than it is that an Ebola virus will morph into something far more contagious. Should we shut down schools, malls, planes, and other crowded spaces now, just to be safe?