Kaci Hickox- what side are you on? Mandatory quarantine or not?

[HannaAddict]

All the pro mandatory quarantine folks should be required to have flu shots if they normally refuse and not expose my family to reduced herd immunity. I'm not for mandatory quarantine automatically.

[HannaAddict]

I don't think a mandatory quarantine is necessary, but I do think returning workers should have daily monitoring. I would really like actual medical personnel making the decision about whether or not to quarantine, and not Chris Christie who, last time I checked, has no medical background whatsoever. I worry much more about "quarantine" being used to detain people who have no chance of becoming ill, but who some politician wants to have detained for questionable political reasons.

I also think it is well within that nurse's right to be a little bit snarky after being held in an unheated tent with a chemical toilet, without any personal effects and only paper scrubs to wear.

This. She has every right to be snarky and Christie was out for political gain, not science or safety related, in instituting the quarantine.

[vonfirmath]

No quarantine. The quarantines are a response to the fear, but just add to the state of fear as well.

[rin]

I haven't heard her speak, but from the descriptions she does sound strident. I think in her way she IS trying to educate the public by stressing that she and others like her pose no danger to the public and that public hysteria cannot contribute to states taking away peoples' civil rights. I happen to agree with her.

TBH I imagine many people might be irate after getting held in an unheated tent for several days in paper scrubs, despite not showing any symptoms of Ebola. She does not come across well, but I also happen to think she's completely in the right. It's a good thing she's not going for a career in politics.

My understanding is that there is no medical basis for enforcing a mandatory quarantine in this case, and that there are very serious and real fears that mandatory quarantines may reduce the numbers of medical professionals willing to travel to the Ebola-hit areas that desperately need medical professionals.

The best way for Americans to protect themselves from Ebola is to treat the current outbreak in Africa, not to use public money to enforce (non-medically supported) quarantines on American soil.

ETA: Wanted to post a link to this article, which talks about some of the real public health risks to implementing mandatory quarantines. http://www.sfgate.com/health/article...te-5856880.php

[lhafer]

I get it--there is public hysteria and we are all overreacting. My husband is a physician and I have to listen to his rants all the time. Still, this is serious business. SHE signed up to volunteer in Africa and I am sure she is a wonderful humanitarian. But she was inconvenienced. I really don't want to see her civil rights bike ride or hear her complaints. She had a chance to use a different tone and maybe do a little public education if that was her thing. Instead, I think she is coming off as cavalier and righteous. I do not like her at all.

As a nurse, I totally agree with the above statement. I think the public looks to health care people in times like this and so far, none of the healthcare workers have been model role models to immulate. All have broken quarantine.

As a humanitarian, her attitude is pretty sh!tty if you ask me. And I personally think that mandatory quarantines for those coming back from the infected African countries are required because intelligent people are showing they can't follow the rules because it's inconvenient.

[mackmama]

I think she should be following the quarantine mandate. Even if she is not ill, I think her attitude is going to encourage others (who could be ill) to dismiss directives which are important and designed to protect us. Our healthcare workers need to be role models for the rest of us right now, and I think that includes following instructions.

[wellyes]

Who cares if she's annoying? I think she's doing an important service to other aid workers who might want to volunteer for Doctors Without Borders and similar groups---- and by extension, to the people in countries with people at great risk.

[Momit]

I am all for self-monitoring. However it seems questionable as to whether people will actually do what they are supposed to do to self monitor.

[rin]

Who cares if she's annoying? I think she's doing an important service to other aid workers who might want to volunteer for Doctors Without Borders and similar groups---- and by extension, to the people in countries with people at great risk.

Exactly. And by further extension, to people in our country (and every other country in the world), since the sooner the current outbreak in West Africa is brought under control, the fewer people will become infected in the rest of the world.

The greatest threat Ebola poses to Americans here is the fact that there's an epidemic raging in three countries halfway around the globe, and that there's a plane ride between you and someone who may have been sitting next to an Ebola-infected child last week on the bus without knowing it. The reason medical professionals keep breaking these enforced quarantines is because there is no medical basis for them. It will be a global disaster if these mandatory quarantines end up discouraging people from volunteering to help. Medical professionals who are going over are typically doing so as volunteers, eating up all of their vacation time, and may well not have 3 extra weeks of leave to sit in a tent at Newark Airport.

[westwoodmom04]

Given that we are requiring others with direct contact with symptomatic patients to be on 21 day home quarantine (Duncan family, relatives and friends of Dallas nurses and Dr. Spencer), I think it is fair enough to ask returning workers to do the same. Returning troops are also on 21 day quarantine. It should be at home and should not preclude people from doing things outside (like bike riding) as long as they avoid other people.

Two weeks ago I would have answered differently. However, given Dr. Spencer's activities and the nurse who went bridesmaid dress shopping when not feeling well, it is clear that even healthcare workers won't necessarily act cautiously during the incubation period. People develop symptoms very quickly with ebola. Better safe than sorry, given the extraordinary cost of treating someone infected with ebola and tracing contacts. Patrick Sawyer, the American who showed symptoms while on a flight to Nigeria, infected a fair number of people.