So a second nurse that had been treating Duncan now has Ebola. Several SHOCKING things that I've heard that are hard to believe.
1) That anyone who had been caring for Duncan in Dallas was allowed out of quarantine to travel - but this woman went to Cleveland.
2) She started showing a fever and didn't decide ON HER OWN not to go anywhere, but instead called the CDC to ask permission to fly back to Dallas. Really? You've had recent exposure to Ebola from a patient that died, a co-worker caught it, and now with a fever you're not sure if you should fly or not.
3) The CDC said YES!!! They told her it was okay to fly to Dallas. With a fever. After having been treating someone with Ebola recently.
4) 132 other people were on the plane, who knows how many others in the airport she could have contacted, and none of them were given the option of not traveling with someone who recently treated an Ebola patient that currently has a fever.
The President called a cabinet meeting and said, "We're going to make sure that something like this is not repeated, and that we are monitoring, supervising, overseeing in a much more aggressive way exactly what's taking place in Dallas ... and making sure that the lessons learned are then transmitted to hospitals all across the country,"
These lessons should have already been learned, and this nurse should never have been allowed out of quarantine - but now she's put hundreds more at risk. She's as bad as Duncan.
Somebody tell me again how safe we are because passengers entering the country are being asked if they've been exposed or if they have a fever prior to flying in.
Yes, and no.
Since I live thirty miles from where this young lady's family lives, this is very much in the news. Here is where your story drifts from the reported news:
1) apparently there was not, and has never been, a "quarantine" for people who have been potentially exposed. Hospital staff and others were asked to "self-report" and to take their temperature (as this is thought to be an early indicator) twice per day.
2) Since there was no travel restriction and she had plans to come here (I imagine so, since she is planning her wedding) she came and, for the most part, stayed in her family home.
3) When her temperature became elevated above normal (I think the number reported was 99 deg F) she called the CDC and asked what she should do. The CDC "standard" definition for a fever is anything over 100 deg F. Since she was not, by definition, running a fever, they gave her permission to fly believing that she was not communicable.
4) The day AFTER she arrived in Texas her fever was over the limit, she was tested for Ebola, and proved positive.
5) The total number of people in "voluntary quarantine" in Ohio is something like seventeen.
6) If the CDC is wrong, then she exposed a LOT of people. There are nurses from one or two hospitals who were on that flight as well as a couple school teachers, all of whom have been given three weeks paid leave and are expected to stay at home. Two schools were closed today, a whole fleet of school buses and a couple buildings are being sanitized, just in case.
I don't think that this woman did anything wrong. She operated within the guidelines that were given to her. I don't blame her any more than any soldier who is operating withing the official "rules of engagement." If errors were made, it lies with those who are defining the risks for us and not with the doctors and nurses who are our front line combatants.
As for the "clipboard guy" if you read the article, what it says is that the patient was in a full hazmat suit, so unless he was present when she put the suit on, or took it off (and he wasn't) he was both correct and safe. It just looked odd, because everyone else was suited up. Or at least that's the story in the media.