Do you favor or oppose travel restrictions to and from West Africa?

[Savannahmann]

39. We might not think about it, but the rest of the world certainly would.

Trivia question, what ended the Black Death? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death

It wasn't science, it was a breakdown of travel and interpersonal communication. In other words, people went and hid. They isolated any community that had it, and anyone who went near the community that had it.

This technique of plague isolation continues through to today. While we know what transmitted the plague now, ignorance having lost out to science, the best treatment remains isolation. Not just of the individual, but of the community. Plague Islands outside ports where people suspected of having the plague were to remain was exceedingly common even through the 19th Century. The Black Flag flying over a ship meant plague aboard, STAY AWAY.

The problem is that in these nations we're talking about, isolation of the patients is impossible. It's not happening. Isolation of the communities isn't happening either. It's spreading, and with a lead time of a couple weeks, it's possible to think you aren't sick, until it's too late you're infecting those around you, continuing the spread.

So what if Ebola was running rampant in the US. We might well see this happening. What will the world do? Bet money that many of them start to cancel flights. But we should be doing that anyway already.

Look at the map of the affected areas.

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/distribution-map.html

There is a lot of that map in the corner, the one of the world, where there are no outbreaks. Yes, we need to provide assistance for those areas with outbreaks, but we also need to make every effort that the rest of that map remains clear. You don't help anyone by getting the damned thing yourself, or spreading it.

If you are sick with this damned bug, how can you help anyone? If Doctors are working on you, using supplies on you in Dallas, how can those supplies be used in Africa? As we've learned there is a finite amount of this treatment that seems to work. It's apparently rare, and difficult to manufacture. We probably won't have enough of a supply of it before the epidemic burns itself out. But it won't burn itself out if we don't prevent it from spreading. Restrictions of flights may include 21 day waits while people are screened every day for the virus in an isolated environment. The point is, before we can stop it, we have to stop the spread. That isn't cruelty. That is basic public health. Stop the shit from spreading first, then you can keep the victims at a manageable level.