<p>^ Yet, Dallas is declaring a state of emergency. Hmmm. </p>
<p>Hmmmm. Perhaps there are legislative or administrative reasons for the declaration.</p>
<p>hmmm….Another window dressing. The health workers would have refrained from traveling if they were told not to. Officials didn’t think/didn’t anticipate and now they have to cover their precious bottom. So they declare an emergency as if health workers were so unruly and that’s the only way to stop them. Hmmm.</p>
<p>Emily, I answered your question. May I ask you a question? What is that disastrous consequence of banning travel that everyone is talking about? We went through more than 100 pages on the topic. I still haven’t heard anything about that other than impeding medical help. We found a solution to that. What else?</p>
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Offending various delicate sensibilities.</p>
<p>Two schools in Cleveland have closed for disinfecting after a staff member flew on the same Frontier Airlines plane (but the day after) that Amber Vinson was on. That plane is now undergoing a 4th cleaning. The staff member has been sent home for 21 days.</p>
<p>The CDC is considering putting Americans that may have been exposed to Ebola on the “no don’t fly list,” , not that I think that is a bad idea but if we can restrict travel for these people why aren’t we restricting travel from infected countries? </p>
<p>I remember someone on the thread asking whether our aid in Africa was working, and I thought someone replied that there was no evidence that it is. Did I remember that right?</p>
<p>Maybe because holding us hostages will raise the awareness but holding others off will lower the awareness? Hello, fellow gunea pigs!</p>
<p>So they’re taking the temperatures of arriving West Africans at Dulles, Chicago, etc. Let’s say one arriving at Dulles has a temperature of 100F. What then? Are there isolation rooms at the airports? Are hospitals in the area ready? What if the passenger vomited while the plane was over the Atlantic in the tiny airport lav? Does the plane turn back or continue on? I’d assume flight crews would close the lav to anyone else’s use. </p>
<p>This morning there’s an article in the Washington Post that school children were on the flight with Nurse Vinson. The schools they attend are closing to do a thorough decontamination. The flight crew is on paid leave. Others on the flight or who are members of her family are self-quarantining. </p>
<p>The repercussions of all this spread so widely that the economic and psychological damage are very high. Airline stocks are way down as is the rest of the stock market. </p>
<p>All this is costing much more than the cost of having the aid organizations charter planes to take aid and personnel to the affected countries. </p>
<p>I heard one doctor working in Liberia say that stopping commercial flights in and out of Liberia would impose a psychological hardship on the aid workers because they’d know they couldn’t just get on a plane easily and leave whenever they’d want to. </p>
<p>Well, first of all, I’d hope that medical aid workers who’ve come into close contact with Ebola would self-quarantine before they came back to the States. And second, what about the angst going on in this country? </p>
<p>The military can quarantine its employees because in addition to their being their employer, they have housing and hospital facilities. Private sector doesn’'t work this way, and there seems to be a constant complaint about using tax dollars.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in Spain, the nurse’s assistant is showing improvement in liver and kidney function, and lowering levels of the virus. She is drinking fluids and yesterday spoke to her husband. She has not been told her dog was put down.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, a plane landing in Madrid this morning phoned ahead that it had a passenger on board with fever and other Ebola symptoms. The passenger flew from Lagos, Nigeria-Paris-Madrid, and is Nigerian. </p>
<p>Also, another person in Madrid is being tested. I’m surprised about this one, because it is reported only that this person rode in the same ambulance as the nurse’s assistant.</p>
<p>Results of testing should be known later today.</p>
<p>“I still haven’t heard anything about that other than impeding medical help.”</p>
<p>I think Frugal Doctor laid out a compelling case for not banning travel, which I agree with. You obviously see if differently. But I think if one is going to call for a travel ban or a 21 day quarantine for those from effected countries - they should also be calling for the same for Texans. I am singling out Texas, for now, as that is the only state in which Ebola has spread to someone who has not been any of the countries where there are outbreaks. </p>
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It is amazing to me that a highly educated health care professional would need to be told not this. They ought to be intelligent enough to figure that one out themselves.</p>
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I imagine that they are now trying to anticipate stupidity, not unruliness.</p>
<p>Tatin,
Its been said upthread and is widely available on the web what the procedures are if a passenger is found to have an elevated temp. I think this is a brief summary:
<a href=“http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/airports-airlines-ebola-things-25964403”>http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/airports-airlines-ebola-things-25964403</a></p>
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</p>
<p>It does make one wonder what is the difference between a civilian traveler and a military traveler? Last I checked, they were both humans, but are treated differently re ebola quarantines? Hum…someone is lying to someone somewhere. </p>
<p>Additionally, the military plan really shows how much of a farce a lot of what the CDC is saying actually is.</p>
<p>Note that the military is doing the quarantines even though they have their OWN planes. The military personnel obviously can get in and out WITHOUT commercial travel. Therefore, only an idiot believes that commercial travel would hinder help. </p>
<p>With one phone call, it could be arranged for the the leasing of 10 Boeing airplanes and fly medical personnel in and out of the hot zone without exposing the general public at all. And those planes can do double duty by carrying supplies in as well.</p>
<p>And just like the military, to further protect the public, those planes and personnel could have their own operating base and on that base would be a 21-day quarantine for people wanting to return. The operating assumption being that may have come in contact with an infected person. And there are many decommissioned military bases, which are perfect for such use. </p>
<p>Therefore, this idea that civilian airplanes and civilian airports need to be part of the medical assistance program is a farce and is only pushed by people who have never run anything or who have a calculated, different purpose in mind other than the maximum effort at containment.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/10/01/why-hasnt-the-u-s-closed-its-airports-to-travelers-from-ebola-ravaged-countries/”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/10/01/why-hasnt-the-u-s-closed-its-airports-to-travelers-from-ebola-ravaged-countries/</a></p>
<p>Good article on the pros and cons of travel restriction.</p>
<p>AW,
Are you willing to pay for all those recommendations you propose?</p>
<p>On October 9, a pregnant Liberian woman who flew into O’Hare (but with no symptoms of ebola) was detained and sent temporarily to a jail with medical facilities in Wisconsin after discovery of an immigration violation. She was then returned to Liberia after being monitored for ebola at the jail.</p>
<p>I read the article and it is still not persuasive. Food an fuel and medical supplies can arrive by cargo ships that don’t carry passengers. Chartered flights can carry out the medical aid workers. </p>