<p>The CDC is coming out with new protocols on what health care workers should do when returning from Africa. One would have thought they would have done this months ago. </p>
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<p>I was being sarcastic. </p>
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<p>Didn’t CDC change and instructed HCW not to use public transportation after Vinson case came out about 2-3 weeks ago? Texas HCW were told not to use public transportation. </p>
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<p>Seriously! The Ebola outbreak has been happening for months! I think that what the CDC needs is a mom to nag them like I nag my kid to get her college apps done.</p>
<p>The reason I brought up the fever issue was not to be obtuse. It was to try understand why people are not concerned about a breach of civil rights when individuals are quarantined with a fever when there is no evidence that a fever indicates they are contagious with Ebola. It is another somewhat arbitrary line in the sand, that is acceptable to some people, while direct contact with Ebola patients as a measure is not. The constant cry of "there no evidence they are contagious! so confining them is a breach! Well there is no evidence that a fever makes them contagious with Ebola, either.</p>
<p>^We need an ebola mom rather than an ebola czar.</p>
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<p>The Texas staff was put on that restriction by the Texas Department of Health because it was felt that a significant breech in protocol had occurred with their PPE equipment.</p>
<p><a href=“Texas hospital workers who treated Ebola patient placed on no-fly list – New York Daily News”>http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/ebola-exposed-texas-hospital-workers-put-no-fly-list-article-1.1977748</a></p>
<p>I also note that the restrictions apply specifically to HCW who entered Mr. Duncan’s room, not the rooms of Ms. Pham or Ms. Vinson</p>
<p><a href=“https://twitter.com/EllenBryanNBC5/status/523076114793910273/photo/1”>https://twitter.com/EllenBryanNBC5/status/523076114793910273/photo/1</a>.</p>
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<p>Except that this particular “protocol” wasn’t instituted by medical or public health experts. It was a poorly-thought-out knee-jerk response on the part of politicians in the face of an ill-informed public reaction. </p>
<p>Find me an expert who thinks that a blanket quarantine of returning healthcare workers is a good idea. They are uniformly appalled, not just because of humaneness issues, but because it will certainly have a negative effect on the number of workers being willing to go to West Africa. Which is already far too small, even before we started treating these heroes like criminals.</p>
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<p>How do you know this? I was under the impression that the New Jersey department of health was handling the matter. </p>
<p>After a passenger was screened to have a fever, the passenger was supposed to be handed over to CDC personal at the airport. That was my understanding. If so, the tent is CDC thing. Anyway, how long was she kept in a tent?</p>
<p>“It was to try understand why people are not concerned about a breach of civil rights when individuals are quarantined with a fever when there is no evidence that a fever indicates they are contagious with Ebola.”</p>
<p>If someone from the hot zone presents with fever they are not quarantined - they are sent to hospital and put in isolation while testing is done to see if, in fact, they have Ebola. If they test negative they are free to go. The problem in New Jersey is that the nurse didn’t have a fever when tested again and tested negative for Ebola and was still not allowed to leave. I am sure if she tested positive there would not have been this brouhaha and she would have begun treatment for Ebola like all the other Ebola patients have. </p>
<p>Good Samaritans and the military quarantine their personal returning from West Africa and DWB doesn’t?</p>
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And it seems to be considered good practice to have the returning troops quarantined for three weeks. I notice that in your list of priorities, preventing the transmission of the disease here didn’t make the cut. If people are expert enough to be of use in Ebola-stricken areas, then they are expert enough (and should be mature enough) to be quarantined for three weeks. I wonder if Ms. Hickox and her chorus would be pitching a fit if the governor of the other state who was in agreement with the enforced quarantine was the one who had actually imposed it. Shame we’ll never know what the outcome would have been if she had arrived at JFK or LaGuardia. Now, they certainly should have put her somewhere comfortable and respectful, but someone coming from West Africa who has a fever should want to quarantine just in case. </p>
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are you sure? ABCNews had reported that she did have a fever.</p>
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Can I say “LOL” now? You’ve got to be kidding.</p>
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<p>Yes, I understand that this is the “problem.” But I’m not convinced she was “still” not allowed to leave. From everything I’ve read, and history itself, she was cleared to leave after the second test, and did leave after a total of 3 days. Unfortunately, I understand that testing negative isn’t failsafe in the early stages of the disease. She was what, 4 days out of Africa? According to science, she may still have contracted the disease and not know it yet.</p>
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<p>Her body temperature was high as measured with the forehead scanner but not when when she was tested again with a normal thermometer. She thinks that she gave a high temperature because she was so upset about being detained.</p>
<p>@Bay - The nurse’s temp was taken twice at the airport and once at the hospital. It first registered normal. After several hours of being detained she had an elevated temp reading with the forehead scanner. When the doctors at the hospital took her temp orally it was 98.6. They speculated that flushing caused the second forehead scan to read high. This would indicate that the elevated second reading was not accurate. She has not subsequently recorded a fever. </p>
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<p>IIRC, allegedly she didn’t at first, then when re-tested, she did. I believe the nurse stated that as she grew more upset, her face became very flushed, potentially interfering with the accuracy of the measurement, which is taken from the forehead. I’ve read accounts of this incident which are contradictory, so forgive me if I have the order on this wrong.</p>
<p>Many people who come to my endoscopy center get really peeved if they have to wait long before being brought back. Some people are very very anxious when they arrive for pre-op assessment. As a result, many of them have elevated blood pressure. However, it’s understood that they do not get a diagnosis of hypertension and sent home with a rx. </p>
<p>Seems like re-testing that high result should have been followed up with an oral temp if there was any dispute about it.</p>
<p>“After a passenger was screened to have a fever, the passenger was supposed to be handed over to CDC personal at the airport. That was my understanding. If so, the tent is CDC thing. Anyway, how long was she kept in a tent?”</p>
<p>Igloo, you are trying so hard to find some proof that the CDC is the ultimate evil in this mess by bringing up such stretch of the facts statements. The tent might have been set up by the hospital itself using the CDC’s guidelines for containment units to create such an isolation unit (we can argue if that setup was any good later). But - the ultimate decision to throw her into that tent and hold her there illegally was the NJ’s governor’s. I talked to some legal eagles - they all agree that the nurse has a good chance to prevail in a lawsuit or recover damages via settlement. </p>
<p>For someone so interested in making sure that the Feds work for us flawlessly, you have shown complete lack of knowledge of how the Fed v state powers operate and what falls within their respective jurisdictions. Maybe you need to read up in the issue. This is not meant as an insult, it is a suggestion. You also need to know what due process is and why we do not deprive citizens and even non-citizens of their rights and liberty without due process. </p>