A Brief History of an Epidemic

1. A man flies to Dallas from West Africa. He feels sick, so he goes to the emergency room. They send him home. He gets really sick and returns to the hospital where he eventually dies. Two of the man's caregivers come down with the disease.

2. A doctor goes to Africa to treat people with the same disease. He flies home to New York, rides the subway, dines out and goes bowling before realizing that, oops! He's infected. A special team from the fire department transports him to an isolation ward at a specially designated hospital.

3. Governors in a handful of heavily populated states enact mandatory quarantine restrictions in order to prevent health care workers (who may be infected with Ebola) from frequenting public places (e.g. going bowling or riding the subway) during the disease's incubation period. The White House and the CDC immediately dismiss these regulations as unfair. Some worry that health care volunteers will be discouraged if the restrictions remain in effect.

4. A nurse confined by the new quarantine restriction complains to the press that she has been inconvenienced. She asks to return to her job and her family right away. Under pressure from public scrutiny, the governors cave in and permit the woman to opt out of quarantine. (Go ahead, lady! Run down to the local day care center and give all of the kids a big hug. Selfishness suits you.)

5. Who knows? But it's absolutely certain that more people will be infected with the disease. If MSF and other NGOs are unwilling to enforce quarantines on their own, and if self-centered Ebola carriers continue to roam around in public, the disease will continue to spread. If one of your relatives gets sick, don't blame Governors Christie or Cuomo for trying to do the right thing, even though it was unpopular. 

Copyright © 2014 Daniel R. South 

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