<p>Whats irresponsible is people telling these wonderful, generous, selfless volunteers to do something other than is what is directed by the organization to whom they give their time. And yes, I think they deserve those superlatives.</p>
<p>I think they deserve the superlatives too, and because they are all those things, I don’t see them refusing to add another layer of caution to the protocol, if only to help ease the fears of those around them.</p>
<p>Doctors without Borders told him to ride the subway?</p>
<p>Really, scholarme? </p>
<p>Whatever guidelines they had (they were posted above, I forget which post) surely he followed. HE IS NOT CONTAGIOUS when he has no symptoms. They are not purposely wanting to endanger others. </p>
<p>I was wondering how could it happen that a doctor could wait until his temp would spike that high. Well, the fact that the media misreported the number explains a lot! CNBC is now confirming that his temp was 100.3.</p>
<p>Here: post 2089</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/msf-protocols-staff-returning-ebola-affected-countries”>http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/msf-protocols-staff-returning-ebola-affected-countries</a></p>
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<p>He did all of those</p>
<p>100.3 - I guess CDC would have okayed him to ride subway or plane.</p>
<p>Here’s the MSF guidelines
<a href=“http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/msf-protocols-staff-returning-ebola-affected-countries”>http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/msf-protocols-staff-returning-ebola-affected-countries</a>
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<p>He says he was feeling crummy, no fever, before yesterday. But, a lot like Vinson, he mentally dismissed the possibility that that could be an Ebola symptom, despite his medical experience telling him that fatigue is the most common first symptom of Ebola.
I think in both cases this is a youth is invincible thing – very common to think that bad things happen to other people, not to us. Usually life kicks that attitude out of us by age 30, but maybe not for him.</p>
<p>Ebola-like symptoms are the key words here. Not just general tiredness. </p>
<p>Maybe he was tired, with jet lag and the fatigue of the long hours and deplorable conditions, so decided to get some exercise (jog, bowl, etc).</p>
<p>Having family members who have lived the lifestyle of volunteering themselves to go into harms way (military, engineers without borders, etc), I have limited patience for the armchair quarterbacks who would not be willing to act in a selfless manner, but want to dictate the lives of those who do. </p>
<p>I think he is a great guy for his work. I also know that there are many Ebola aid workers who voluntarily avoid people for 21 days after returning home just in case. There was an Australian healthworker a couple of weeks ago who did that and did get a fever after a week - happily it turned out not to be Ebola. I think she is a great role model.</p>
<p>As I said upthread, you’ve been working with Ebola patients. You return home and are feeling pretty OK. On about day 8-10 you start to feel punky enough that you notice a change although you have no fever, aches or nausea. Why not just stay home on a Wednesday night to see if it passes? Is one night home with take-out and Netflix asking too much? </p>
<p>Just got a phone alert that Nina Pham is virus free!</p>
<p>^^ Wonderful news!</p>
<p>Great news about Nina!</p>
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Do you have a citation for this? Many self quarantine? Many out of how many?</p>
<p>Yesterday on NPR, a doctor was talking about why fatality rates in western countries would not be as high as the 70% in Africa. He guessed roughly 20%. One factoid he gave is that during the worst time, about 10 liters of fluid need to be replaced per day for a patient. 10 liters (2.6 gallons)! That illustrated for me the difference in the amount of contagious bodily fluids coming from someone just at the beginning of being symptomatic and someone in the middle of treatment.</p>
<p>Nope, I don’t have a randomized double blind study either. Just reading stories from West Africa, like the one mentioned here, of the mom who cares for Ebola patients then goes home everyday – her kids not allowed near until she’s changed & bathed.
I don’t get the idea that a person’s heroism in one area means they are above being questioned about their actions anywhere else. People make mistakes all the time. I’m guessing Vinson probably regrets deciding to go to Ohio, and this doctor probably regrets not staying in Wednesday. We learn from other people’s experiences as long as we are allowed to observe them. We’re not going to learn anything if we just close our eyes.</p>
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<p>He. Followed. The. Protocol. There was no “mentally dismissing” about it.</p>
<p>Remind me again – Of all the people who were on airplanes with Ms. Vinson when she had a fever, how many have gotten the disease? </p>
<p>He could have followed the protocol by staying home when he was feeling tired too.
That would have kept a bowling alley from closing down for disinfection.
And Frontier Air lost a lot of money on Vinson’s decision.</p>
<p>Also, considering that MSF has lost 9 workers to Ebola, not seeing how their protocols are sacrosanct.</p>
<p>Where does “generalized malaise” end and “Ebola symptoms” begin? Would someone who has never had Ebola before know when that cross-over occurs? If a person is taking his temperature 2X per day, isn’t it possible that there could be say, a full 6 hours of a day where his fever had spiked and he doesn’t realize it until he takes his temperature the second time? There is not enough precision in the protocol (not that there can be) to say with certainty that a given person was “symptom free and thus not contagious” by following the written protocol. </p>
<p>And no, LasMa, I do not know specifically of any person who contracted Ebola from a public space. But we do know that the infected cameraman didn’t handle any bodily fluids, and we do know that there are 10,000 reported cases of Ebola, not all of whom were HCW. </p>