Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Nurse Tests Negative for Ebola, Politicians Want Quarantine Anyway

Clearly, America needs to stop electing lawyers to high office and try putting a few scientists in their places instead. The latest Ebola nonsense merely goes to show that there are not enough people who understand public health involved in policy covering public health. Kaci Hickox, the nurse who was forcibly quarantined in New Jersey, shamed Governor Chris Christie into letting her leave his state, and now, she faces similar nonsense in her home state of Maine. The key fact, she has tested negative for the Ebola virus. Quarantine in her case, therefore, is stupid.

A quarantine of 21 days is in place for New York and New Jersey contrary to the Centers for Disease advice. There is nothing magical about the 21 days either. At that stage, anyone exposed to Ebola who has not developed symptoms yet has just a 5% of developing them. However, at 16 days, a majority of patients will be in the clear. So imposing a 21-day quarantine is really just a question of probability.

However, in the case of Ms. Hickox, her tests for the presence of the virus as well as antibodies have come back negative. She is as likely to develop whooping cough, rubella and the ague as she is Ebola. Absent the virus, one simply cannot contract it. It's the germ theory of disease.

Yet, it's election time in America, and if politicians can scare up some votes by hyping the possibility that voters will die, they will do so. Maine's Governor Paul LePage is in a three-way race for re-election, and he's taking the opportunity to pose as a protector of the voters in Maine. His administration is filing papers to get a court order requiring Ms. Hickox into quarantine for three weeks.

This is rich coming from a man who claimed that the Affordable Care Act "has made America less free. We the people have been told there is no choice. You must buy health insurance or pay the new Gestapo -- the IRS." Yet he wants to detain a woman to prevent the spread of a disease that she doesn't have. He needs to stop polishing his jackboots and try learning a little science.

Of course, this is he same yahoo who said "Everybody looks at the negative effects of global warming, but with the ice melting, the Northern Passage has opened up. So maybe, instead of being at the end of the pipeline, we're now at the beginning of a new pipeline."

The truth is that the Obama administration has got this whole thing right. Fighting Ebola in West Africa where the latest outbreak is makes sense. The reservoir host is there, and unless infected people fly from that area, other parts of the world will not see a single case of it. It doesn't spread easily, and it doesn't last long outside the human body. That means that anyone who has been in contact with Ebola victims in Africa might have the virus. Quarantine for a couple of weeks makes sense for medical professionals, but in the event that the returning person tests negative as Ms. Hickox has, there is no scientifically valid reason to isolate her.

The proponents of these stupid policies claim to be acting from "an abundance of caution." In truth, they are acting out of an excess of ignorance and cowardice.

© Copyright 2014 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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