Ebola and Other Deadly Diseases -101

Rebecca Mallory

What makes me qualified to write about Ebola? Not a thing. But, I’ve listened to the news ad nauseam. Does that count? So here’s my take. I know it’s a deadly disease that is highly contagious and that mortality rates are reported between 50-70%. Not good. So should we quarantine someone with the disease even though they might not feel symptoms? Let’s look at it in a more personal light. Let’s say your child wakes up an hour before school and has a red and watery eye. He blinks a little and rubs at it. “What could it be?” you ask. Looks like pink eye. You know that’s very contagious. Do you send him to school? Depends on if you’re a clueless parent or not. Which you’re obviously not. Of course you DON’T send him where he can infect and pass the disease to other children. Or… what if your child comes home from school itching her head like crazy. You check her hair and sure enough, she has lice! She didn’t have it when she left that morning. It’s obvious that she got it from another child at school. She hands you a note from the teacher.

Can you imagine? What would you do if you got that letter? Absurd. Well, that’s what’s happening in Washington only with a life-threatening disease. No travel ban for countries infected with Ebola?? We don’t want them to feel bad? That makes no sense and is a dangerous non-policy. If you have paid attention to news in the… oh let’s see… last 25 years… You are, no doubt, aware that many “feel good” policies have dragged with them enormous amounts of unintended consequences.For instance, when California and Colorado legalized medicinal pot, (brace yourself) they were stunned to discover abuses in the system. People lied or forged prescriptions just to smoke it for fun!! What???

Or when the minimum wage is raised, prices on all consumer goods go up and many people lose their own jobs because employers must absorb the mandatory wage increase somewhere. Feel good policy = unintended consequences. So it is with Ebola. The difference is, pot, pink eye, lice and increased wages, etc. are not death sentences as are most cases of Ebola.

I have been amused watching the nurse from Maine, Casey Hickox, totally defy the feds as they try to quarantine her for fear that she may present with Ebola symptoms after returning from Liberia where she treated Ebola victims. She absolutely refuses to quarantine herself and not leave her house for 21 days because she says “there is no science-based evidence” that she should do so. She and her attorneys claim that her Constitutional rights are being violated. So she went for a bike ride with her boyfriend this morning with press and feds frantically chasing after her. Haha. What a circus that must have been? Do I agree with her? Probably not. It seems a little selfish to me. Will they arrest her? Heck no! They can’t possibly because they have no clear Ebola protocol or policy.

First we are told that there was practically no chance that Ebola would make it to US shores. Whoopsie. Next, they tried to have TSA employees at the airports take people’s temperatures as they came into the country. Whoopsie. That didn’t work either. Then they said that US hospitals had prepared for months to take care of any patient with Ebola. Big whoopsie. That didn’t happen either. Is there no real concrete reason why they won’t stop flights from Ebola-ridden countries other than ridiculous political correctness?  So nurse Hickox? I think you’re wrong, but thanks for the entertainment factor.  I just hope you don’t really have this disease and are spreading it to unbeknownst victims.

Did you know that was the sole reason for Ellis Island? They wanted to check out and document every person who entered the US to make sure they did not carry a communicable disease to spread to others. They were quarantined if they did. What happens to astronauts as they come back to earth after a space mission? Yup. Quarantined. As has been the case throughout history. It’s absurd and makes no sense at all that we would not want to protect every single American citizen BEFORE, yes I said it, before those of other countries.  And do you know what the infuriating frosting is on this Ebola cake? Ebola is one of the hottest and most popular Halloween costumes this year. Seriously America? Fluids not included.