From VPR today:
“A Vermonter has recently returned from West Africa and entered voluntary quarantine. The individual is not currently showing symptoms of Ebola, and will be monitored for 21 days, according to Gov. Peter Shumlin”
And that’s all they know for the moment.
Low Risk, But To Be Safe….
NECN’s Jack Thurston at press conference tweeting updates such as:
Shumlin reemphasizing multiple times #VT is safe and that the state is on top of the situation.
Individual was in West Africa for close to a month, Shumlin said. #VT had anticipated his return and was prepared.
Shumlin says the #VT health commissioner may institute INvoluntary quarantine if deemed necessary. Right now, individual is cooperative
Man told #VT state officials he did not have direct contact with ebola patients in West Africa, Shumlin said.
Shumlin: #VT is housing this individual; law enforcement is monitoring his location in undisclosed rural town
#VT Epidemiologist Patsy Kelso: state checks with subject 2x a day. Has alerted health centers if symptoms arise
#VT Health Commish Tracey Dolan agrees risk is low, but says it’s an uncertain risk due to some unknown travel
The Vermonter is not a licensed physician but presented self as such, Shumlin says. Was in Guinea & Sierra Leone.
Vermonter will be monitored for several weeks, has no #Ebola symptoms, and poses no risks, officials say.
huh?
It’s voluntary. Shumlin says INvoluntary is not necessary (now). A doctor checks with them twice a day. But just the same the police have to “monitor”? Sorry, does not compute. Monitor what? Is this a sort of Vermont family friendly police state thing?
"Vermont family friendly police state "
I could not even imagine why the police would have to be involved in this medical issue. Just how much baby sitting does our community really need?
Twisted times and tales
The strangest part of this report concerns the obscurity of the person’s actual qualifications, as he was [from the Rutland Herald]
“personally investigating the Ebola epidemic in those countries, and while he has represented himself in public statements as a physician, he is not licensed as a doctor or health professional in Vermont. He was not traveling or affiliated with any governmental, public health, medical or aid organization.
Maybe this element of dissembling gave rise to the police aspect??
Chris’ article did contain reference to this fact, and it struck me as a bizarre note.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20141028/THISJUSTIN/141029958
Bizarre note and then some...
As usual, you do have a keen eye for detail, however, coming from another view think of it this way, millions of “involuntary” cigarette smokers are “infected” daily with passive cigarette smoke that annually kills up to a half a million Americans and wrecks the health of millions more.
Where are the authorities needed to protect the public and private areas to keep people, many of whom are children, from the “deadly” exposure to cigarette smoke? Do they suit up to go into homes and public areas to protect adults and children from one of the most dangerously ‘airborne’ spread health hazards known to medical science?
Cigarette smoke is another kind of contagion, and yes, I know the difference between the ‘panic’ over sudden or quick deaths as opposed to slow death. Nevertheless…contagion is contagion.
Whatever the particulars of the Rutland case are, there is an unusual police and fire department involvement in this country. Protecting the public should remain under medical hazmat procedures. The business of voluntary and involuntary quarantine lockdown is acquiring, as toyboy mentioned, an unusual law enforcement involvement. The United States oftentimes has a bizarre take on “protecting” the public from itself.
“A doctor who treated Ebola patients in Africa returned to New York City ten days ago. Today, he reported symptoms of a 103-degree fever and nausea. And now the NYPD and the FDNY just sent out a miniature motorcade to bring him to the hospital. Craig Spencer, the 33-year-old physician whose work with Doctors Without Borders brought him in close contact with Ebola patients, received the luxury and precaution of not just two ambulances, but two cop cars as well, to bring him to Bellevue Hospital,”
WHO reports that: “The virus spreads by direct contact with blood or other body fluids of an infected human or other animal. Infection with the virus may also occur by direct contact with a recently contaminated item or surface. Spread of the disease through the air has not been documented in the natural environment. EBOV may be spread by semen or breast milk for several weeks to months after recovery.”
...
Well this is where a forum like this only helps to spread rumors. Who knows? At least yet. But if “impersonation of being a doctor” requires a police monitor just in case he walks out of his house with an unauthorized stethoscope, then all I have to say is be careful what you dress up as for Halloween.
link
Here’s a link to VPR with the same story.
http://digital.vpr.net/post/vermonter-extremely-low-risk-ebola-voluntary-quarantine-after-returning-west-africa
From what I can read into it, this appears to be simply a good samaritan who wanted to do what he could. Which was quite a lot more than I’m doing, although (tooting my own horn) I am donating toys to Doctors Without Borders for holiday packages for their field workers for the 6th year.
I don’t know why this bothers me so much. Am I the only one? New Jersey let the nurse from Maine go, albeit over Gov Christie’s dead political body, and she had been in direct contact. She, and thankfully others, believed in the science of it. Apparently if we all agree not to believe in the science of it, or take a sort of big brother view of the police, then it’s a more civilized and voluntary quarantine? Someone else help me with this.
Perhaps they've taken this
Perhaps they’ve taken this tact because they don’t feel that they can trust this person to be truthful about where they were or who they had contact with. I don’t really have a problem with this since this person has already shown to have a track record of deception. It’s possible this person isn’t that together emotionally or mentally so can’t really be relied upon to be honest about the back story. We don’t know enough to have any idea why friends called the state concerned and it seems that, unlike the nurse in New Jersey who was kept isolated in what sounded like a pretty uncomfortable tent situation, he is being kept isolated in much more comfortable circumstances. I suspect there’s a bit more to this story than they can perhaps let out legally or medically about this person. And, as I said, it sounds as if he’s being treated much better than that poor nurse that Christie was keeping in the tent. Who was a legitimate health professional.
What I have more of a problem with are the posts on our local newspaper’s facebook site condemning medical people who have gone to these countries to try and stem the spread of this disease . . . as in “they should just stay there then” or ” we shouldn’t let them back in our country” sorts of comments. Actually the real physicians and medical staff that have been volunteering are showing remarkable dedication, understanding and even perhaps a bit more than a touch of bravery. And if they return and show signs of Ebola they shouldn’t be condemned. They may likely be helping to keep us all from having to deal with an epidemic more disastrous than the old epidemics that spread through this country. Reading up on the 1918 Influenza epidemic would be a good start for many, bodies stacked up like cordwood on the streets of NYC. They’re placing themselves at great risk, stemming an epidemic that could be disastrous if it came here unchecked and the response of some is a bit shocking really. Also it seems that the degree of contact you would need to be infected by a person carrying this disease is going unnoticed by many. The one advantage to Ebola is that unlike flu, as in 1918, you need a bit more contact to catch it. Of course, this is viral, and that could change but at present it’s not an airborne disease.
And yet, that all said, I don’t have many red flags going up about how the state is handling this guy’s situation. It looks like there’s a little more to the story than is being said right now.
...
perhaps so.
i should just stop reading the news.
Ebola in the balance - or skewered?
Considering that Ebola outbreaks are reported as early as 1976, whatever is happening here and other states, the panic is affecting all strata of official and unofficial responses. The reading public can only (helplessly) follow the media trail.
Ebola in the balance…In today’s Reformer:
Priorities?
Editor of the Reformer:
I find it interesting that there was no great push for an ebola virus vaccine until it left Africa and came here to our shores. Now that it’s in this country, suddenly the priorities have jumped.
Pharmaceutical companies have spent more of our money on erectile dysfunction than cancer research, neurological disorders and any number of other diseases. How about trying to prevent the spread of this serious disease?
I guess we know now where the priorities exist for the drug companies.
David Fagelson, M.D.,
Putney, Oct. 27
......
That is facile of Dr. Fagelson and I would think someone of his experience would know better. This outbreak took alot of people by surprise and it’s silly to start politicizing it as being something short-sighted by the drug companies. The “great push” that he’s talking about did happen when the outbreak was occuring. It’s nonsense to say it began simply when the fellow in NYC or the woman in Texas arrived with the virus. He’s reading his media reports backwards.
Actually work on an Ebola
Actually work on an Ebola vaccine in this country began around 2003. So if Fagelson is assuming it was more recently, like this year, he is in error. In fact the few resources available would not have been developed rapidly enough to have been used to treat current US patient so it is obviously the result of work dating back to 2003. However,
Fagelson has a very good point about research money being spent on things like erectile dysfunction etc. The amount of money marked for medical research is way too small, we should be spending more on medical research. However the impetus to spend on diseases that do not affect those in the US will probably always be small as long as medical research is conducted on a country by country basis and not seen in the larger worldwide scope. Unfortunately those who want to ban travel etc, are also looking at these diseases on a country by country basis. The reality is that spread of viral disease is world wide and can’t be controlled by travel bans in this day and age. Absolutely impossible.
There really should be a push for vaccine development worldwide with research money granted by governments. However of course, you don’t just have the concern over federal expenditures and overspending, you will also raise the hackles of those who oppose vaccination in general. Again, people should read about the 1918 Influenza outbreak. Vaccination is not a bad thing, the problem is that it has helped control serious disease outbreaks to a point where we have lost collective memory about plagues and epidemics. So now we fear vaccination. This is going to be complicated but I certainly agree with Fagelson about the lack of funding for research.
I wonder how Libertarians and such would feel about federal funding for vaccines if we truly had an epidemic sized outbreak of Ebola here, which could happen, probably won’t, but could.
Hell No! I Won’t Go (into Quarantine)
Nurse Hickox fights back (CNN) – A nurse who was quarantined against her will in New Jersey after treating Ebola patients in West Africa will not obey officials’ instructions to seclude herself at home in Maine, she and her lawyers said on NBC’s “Today” show and in the Bangor Daily News.
One of the nurse’s lawyers told CNN on Wednesday that they are trying to work with Maine officials to avoid escalating the situation.
The nurse, Kaci Hickox, returned to Maine on Monday after New Jersey authorities released her from a hospital tent where state officials kept her over the weekend as part of a new quarantine policy. She hired a lawyer and spoke out about her isolation and was then transported to Maine.
She has twice tested negative for the virus.
Maine officials have said that they would ask Hickox to quarantine herself at home until the passage of 21 days from her last possible contact with an Ebola patient, adding that they would make it involuntary if she resisted.
“Today” show host Matt Lauer on Wednesday asked her whether she planned to follow guidelines and finish that quarantine on November 10.
“I don’t plan on sticking to the guidelines,” she said. “I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me.”
That could set up a confrontation with Maine officials….
Quarantines rarely used, effectiveness questioned
By ERICA WERNER
The Associated Press
POSTED: 10/30/2014
Experts note that unlike SARS and the flu, Ebola is not easily spread to others by coughing or sneezing. Instead it requires direct contact with a sick person’s bodily fluids while they are showing symptoms of the disease. So they question the need to quarantine people who are not showing symptoms.
Health officials also agree that the best way to protect the U.S. from the disease is to end the outbreak in West Africa. Doctors, nurses and other health workers are badly needed there, and experts worry that imposing quarantines here at home could discourage those volunteers.
“Being overbroad, being draconian is not necessarily the best way to keep us safe,” said Wendy Parmet, a health policy expert at Northeastern University School of Law.
Read full text:
http://www.reformer.com/news/ci_26828493/quarantines-rarely-used-effectiveness-questioned
"An indication of thoughtfulness versus irrationality"
As the title says.
Certainly this is something lacking in public policy far too long.
(CNN) — A Maine judge on Friday ruled in favor of a nurse who defied a quarantine in a tense standoff with state authorities, saying local health officials failed to prove the need for a stricter order enforcing an Ebola quarantine.
District Court Chief Judge Charles LaVerdiere ordered nurse Kaci Hickox, who recently returned to the United States after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, to submit to “direct active monitoring,” coordinate travel with public health officials and immediately notify health authorities should symptoms appear. Another hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Standing with her boyfriend Ted Wilbur, outside their home in Maine, Hickox told reporters the decision was a “good compromise” and that she would continue to comply with direct active monitoring.
“I know that Ebola is a scary disease,” she said. “I have seen it face-to-face. I know we are nowhere near winning this battle. We’ll only win this battle as we continue this discussion, as we gain a better collective understanding about Ebola and public health, as we overcome the fear and, most importantly, as we end the outbreak that is still ongoing in West Africa today.”
In a news conference with her lawyers Friday, Hickox, via Skype, expressed her support with the army of U.S. health care professionals battling the outbreak in West Africa.
“They are why I’m here,” she said, acknowledging that she will work in Africa again. “I hope that one day I can meet some of them at the airport and give them a big hug and let them know that we’re in this together … This is important day for public health.”
Her attorney, Norman Siegel, earlier called the decision a victory.
“She won,” he said. “She is not quarantined. She can go out in the public. … (The judge) got the understanding of what liberty is about and how the government can’t restrict your liberty unless there is compelling justification.”
At the news conference, another lawyer for Hickox, Steve Hyman, called the decision “an indication of thoughtfulness versus irrationality” and said his client had become “a prisoner because of misconceptions and a whole host of irrational arguments.”
Hyman said he hoped politicians applied “the same kind of thinking and rationality” as LaVerdiere did when dealing with Ebola.