Why would anyone panic over a very ill person [View all]
being flown to the US in a specially-designed isolation tent for treatment? Because that person has Ebola? Now, that person, who we all saw walk from the ambulance into a specially-designed isolation facility, is being treated for that disease and the disease is being studied by the foremost communicable disease agency on the planet.
Who is at risk here? The only people coming into contact with this doctor, who had been treating Ebola patients in Africa and contracted the disease from people he was helping, are medical professionals. Medical professionals who have special training in isolation strategies and in this disease are trying to save this brave doctor's life. Soon, another health care worker will also be in the US being treated, too.
My hope is that both survive this deadly disease and that more is learned about the best possible treatment for people who have the disease.
In the meantime, scheduled airline flights from that region in West Africa are landing in the United States, with passengers who may or may not have been exposed to Ebola while in Africa and who may even be in the incubation stage of the disease. In fact, one such passenger is currently in an isolation unit in a New York City hospital. He may or may not have Ebola. The diagnosis will soon be made.
How many others have flown into the United States from the affected countries? I don't have a number, but it should be possible to count all of the flights from those countries that connect to other flights headed for the U.S. Each passenger is a potential carrier of Ebola, a viral illness that is spread by direct contact with body fluids, as far as has been determined. I'm sure it's more than two people, and they're walking around right now somewhere.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, experts in infectious diseases are working to save the lives of two patients, both U.S. citizens, and working to learn how to best treat this illness. What they learn may save other lives as well, including those of some of those airline passengers, who may develop symptoms after coming to the U.S. It may also save the lives of some of the people they come into contact with.
Why would anyone object to this treatment and study? I cannot understand that at all. Yet, death threats have been made over this, by people who are at virtually no risk whatever of contracting Ebola. Death threats. To what depths have we sunk in our fear of things that aren't even a strong risk?
Meanwhile, influenza will kill tens of thousands in the U.S. during flu season this year. And some of the same people sending death threats will not even be immunized against influenza, if statistics mean anything.
We're very strange here in the United States. We worry about what is not a real concern, yet ignore what is. Odd.
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