Sorry I didn't respond sooner.
But the article you quoted described why those medical personnel were affected. No protective equipment. Misdiagnosis. Dealing with very sick, symptomatic, people, without medical equipment, thinking that they are dealing with malaria until it's too late.
...but that is the reason I quoted the title of and linked to the article - and my actual point. With the first case to be diagnosed here in the U.S., the circumstances ended up being quite similar in some ways. Initially the fellow here was NOT properly diagnosed, either, and was even sent home because his symptoms were apparently not out of the ordinary for illnesses that are normally seen here, and somewhere and somehow along the way he also ended up infecting two health care workers himself.
If Ebola does become an issue here in the U.S., then, and so the odds of an exposure do increase to a significant level, at some point doctors and other medical care professionals may need to decide whether they will want to don their special suits (if they even yet have them), not just after the patient has already been diagnosed, but before the patient has even been thoroughly examined.
I don't think a doctor would really want to stick a tongue depressor into the mouth of someone with Ebola symptoms or to have that patient cough for him - without, of course, that special suit on.
This potentially deadly virus, though perhaps not as easy to spread as some other more common viruses, is still apparently easier to spread than let's say HIV, and since also a surprise cough or sneeze or projectile vomiting might be a bit harder to fend off than the surprise butt sex, it really does need to be treated with more caution (as we do probably agree). Those who have been working with African patients, of course, certainly know all this already - or that's at least what news reports and documentaries on the subject and other sources of information have led me to believe.
And I agree that an abundance of caution is necessary, but I think there is a real need to balance that against the burden we would place on those who are working to fight this disease. Is there any reason to believe that milder protocols are inadequate?
I keep going back to the same thought about these quarantines that some here, and Governor Christie, have called for. Either they are unnecessary, or they are inadequate.
If this disease is such a threat that it is necessary to call for strict quarantines for three weeks even in the absence of symptoms and a negative test for presence of the virus, then that must mean it is easily transmissible and lesser measures would not keep us safe. If that is the case, then the existence of several thousand cases in Africa would represent the beginning of a pandemic that is a global threat. People will flee that region and the disease will be transmitted, and it won't be so easy to identify high risk people like Craig Spencer or Kaci Hickox. While we might be able to identify and quarantine a few medical workers, we cannot identify and quarantine the thousands of other people who come in contact with Ebola carriers who are asymptomatic.
And if that is the case, if this disease is that deadly, and that difficult to contain, then there is one, clear, obvious thing that needs to be done to protect the American people. We must fight the disease vigorously in Africa. Only that way do we have any hope of preventing widespread infection in America. Anyone who demands strict quarantines ought to also be demanding vigorous control of the disease in Africa.
Or, perhaps the disease is easily stopped with measures less than what Governor Christie has imposed. If that is the case, then containing it is not as difficult. The need for vigorous control in Africa would be a humanitarian need, but not necessarily a requirement to keep the people of America safe.
Which all means that if people were behaving rationally, there ought to be a strong correlation between people demanding strict quarantines, and people demanding vigorous containment of the disease in Africa. However, that's not the case. If anything, there is an anti-correlation. Those who are most demanding of the tightest controls in America are the most critical of either public or private efforts to control the disease in Africa. Why is that?
I believe your questions and your speculation is valid.
In that this virus and this particular outbreak of this virus are both unprecedented, I suspect we are going to have to just learn as we go, for there just isn't much data yet on how efficiently Ebola can spread in larger populations under different conditions than those seen in small African villages, of course.
It would be nice to think that the efforts of international teams of doctors up to now were for the sole purpose of looking out after the few poor individuals in their isolated villages in Africa who were unfortunate enough to be the victims of earlier Ebola outbreaks, but was that realistically what was happening?
...of course not. Africans are dying all the time of countless diseases, unfortunately. Some are (or at least often are) in some locations there also killing each other by the tens of thousands, again unfortunately.
International teams of doctors were seeking out the Ebola outbreaks not only to study a new virus but to contain the outbreaks as best they could in these isolated villages as they became aware of just how serious the consequences could ultimately be if this virus got out of control - and, yes, even for the world at large.
They were trying to keep it from reaching a major population center out of legitimate concern, if not actual fear, of how easily and widely it might be spread - and, of course, now we are just beginning to see whether or not THEIR concerns and perhaps fears were actually justified, since many of them, of course, were watching people die in front of them and often even to include some of their own colleagues.
Until we have a vaccine that we know is effective in giving us an immunity to this virus, really all we can try to do, then, is what doctors have been trying to do all along and keep the virus contained to wherever it happens to be at any given time while also essentially experimenting on people to try to come up with more effective treatments so as to hopefully save more of them, and while not precluding any appropriate and necessary transportation to properly equipped medical care facilities, of course. Oh, did I say, and work on that vaccine?
In this on-the-move, well connected modern world of ours, any major outbreak probably has the potential to spread out of control, and so I agree that Africa needs help and even for the reasons you suggested, and especially considering some of the disturbing conditions in some places there.
By coincidence I recently watched a video showing what it is like in parts of civil war torn Liberia, which just happens to be one of the countries affected by this latest outbreak. It showed one of the crowded slums with the sewage and the garbage in the streets. It showed the numerous piles of human poop on the beach. It told of the rags used by the prostitutes to just wipe off between customers in one of the brothels.
In it also, though, was interviewed a born again Christian - and a man who had previously been a cannibal and soldier who had killed a child before each of his battles and eaten their hearts and drunk their blood while sharing both with others, of course, so that he could feel invincible while running naked into battle - with "Butt Naked" even then becoming his nickname. That particular "communion meal," if you will, was more of just a pre-war magic ritual than what I assume would have been his normal cannibalistic meals, since he said he had also eaten quite a few (I also assume adult and cooked) people.
He did seem to be a changed man, however, and was actually helping some of the former boy soldiers who used to be his own enemies. He spoke of having to make amends for his former sinful ways, as of course any good Christian would know to do. He even spoke of a more recent incident in which he actually felt compelled to report a person who had served him some meat - when he said he noticed the familiar taste of human flesh. ...which it seems some people may even still be serving up and partaking of in some parts there. A boy in the video did say that human flesh was quite tastey, come to think of it.
Liberia was apparently a former U.S. colony repatriated and run by freed and returned African-American slaves. That, though, was long before the more recent civil wars, of course, when the oppressed ("true African?") native majority decided that there needed to be an uprising and change, I guess.
Anyway, it was quite the enlightening video and Butt Naked even seemed to be a rather effective preacher who could probably hang with the best. At least some people there, including some who could have been relatives of those he had killed in battle (and maybe even eaten?), seemed to think so as they repeatedly blessed him and lavished him with praise.
Oh, and some who were interviewed expressed the feeling that war could break out again at anytime. The video may have been a few years old, however. So, maybe things have improved? Anyway, I went into a little extra detail there to show just how crazy and dirty and out of control and almost surreal the whole situation seems to be there in some locations.
Considering things like this, I sure hope medical researchers are getting pretty close with that Ebola vaccine, and if even just for the sake of Africans, of course. Hopefully, the possibly more effective treatment methods being tried here, too, can be used there also to help save some of the currently and probably soon to be afflicted since the current death rate seems to be about 71%.
For those who want to put their "faith" in the current "science" and the "scientists," however, I would point out that what is happening now - at least in Africa - is what the brave doctors and scientists working with Ebola in Africa have been trying to prevent all along.
I highly suspect it might be due to them being lacking in resources and even the research funds to help them in developing that effective vaccine. I might have even heard such things somewhere. Those in Africa probably now need more resources than ever, so hopefully voices of reason will indeed be louder than the voices of those in denial or those who are paranoid or, of course, the wonderfully divisive political whores.
Maybe instead of scientists now trying to allay people's fears, it might be wise of them and even time for them to play the politician themselves and actually use those fears. "See, this is what we tried to warn people of when we couldn't get enough help and funding before!" "Now, we will need (some near astronomical number) times what we were asking for previously!"
I guess it's evolution, though, and we're still just a part of the big ongoing experiment.
