Thank you for this post. I am very discouraged here now, with the over reactions and under reactions. He did what he was supposed to do. People with this infection will show up around the world and being contained and cared for is the way to go.

Then there is the media feeding frenzy. All of this on DU too. Thank you for your post. K&R.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025671785

I am having the same reaction you are. We listened to the press conference. The news media questions were really inane. The questions were the same questions over and over. It was as if the news people were disappointed they could not get an answer that met their agenda of freaking out,attacking the patient and blaming Obama.

The last comment I heard before I turned off Rachel Maddow was from a reporter outside the ill Doctor's apartment. The reporter was whining that the apartment super would not let the reporters into the building and into his apartment. Why the heck would a reporter need in the apartment? Any reporter that asked to go to into the apartment building should be fired for gross stupidity and utter lack of respect for another person's privacy. Gee whiz!

is for medical workers who have been exposed to ebola, who start having flu-like symptoms, to treat it as Ebola until proven otherwise and stop walking around in public, taking subways and planes, trying on bridal gowns, etc.

Even if ALL that happens is that we don't have to monitor and quarantine 160 people (the approximate number under some form of monitoring because Amber Vinson took two flights and went wedding shopping)for every one who becomes ill and wanders around while symptomatic, we will have saved a significant amount of money and aggravation. I expect there will be an equivalent number who will require monitoring from this second case of a medical care provider who apparently does not understand how serious Ebola is.

And the reason there is all this monitoring is because Ebola is a deadly virus, and the risk is not zero. If there was not some risk, no one would be spending the time and money to do all this monitoring.

It is not fear mongering to insist that people who have been exposed to Ebola act responsibly when they start to have symptoms.

NO ONE CAN GET IT JUST SITTING BESIDE HIM AT A BOWLING ALLY OR ON A SUBWAY!!!

they do not speak in all caps and absolutes. They talk about low risk - but none that I have read denies there is risk at all. It does not serve us well to treat even low risk as no risk.

As for what he did - we can wait until the dust settles, but the early reports say he was fatigued on Tuesday, and was running a fever, in pain, and nauseated on Wednesday. The 103 degree fever came on Thursday, but was not the first symptom.

not taking the subway around the city and bowling despite feeling "sluggish."

He acted heroically in going to Africa in the first place. But it's too bad he didn't behave more cautiously upon his return.

to be jet lag. Knowing that he has Ebola now, that sluggish feeling was most likely the first sign of his infection.

He should have kept to his apartment and avoided other people as soon as he started to feel run-down. It's not worth the risk.

she felt fatigue a few days in advance of her fever.

There is a broad gap between being Chicken Little News Channel hysterical and pretending there is no chance of spreading the disease.

People need to understand that any risk they take with this disease is rolling the dice with other peoples' lives, which is legally manslaughter. It is no joke.

called his employer right away. He was not contagious until he got a fever. Ebola has to be harder to catch than we have been led to believe by all the media since no one in the apartment with Mr. Duncan got sick.

The vilification of these people is ridiculous. Seems there are some people on this site that are more interested in scare mongering than showing compassion and having an intelligent discussion.

and begin having symptoms that are consistent with Ebola, they need to stop having contact with other people until it is established they do not have Ebola.

The reports I have read put that day as Tuesday, when he started feeling fatigued and at the absolute latest by Wednesday, when it was reported he started running a fever, feeling nausea, and pain (on top of the fatigue which started a day earlier).

The press conference was covered live by MSNBC, so that seems to me to be the latest and most credible information. The brave and dedicated health care workers do not need to be attacked by people who have no idea about what they are doing. Seems to me the good doctor was following the MSF protocol.

Although I have not seen any which put the start of symptoms (fatigue being a symptom) later than Tuesday.

were listed by a panel of health experts in charge in New York city along with the mayor and governor. They laid the facts out. They seemed very confident in the facts they presented.

Vilifying the health care workers who are working to bring this outbreak under control and eliminate the risk from Ebola, is counterproductive and pretty low class. Really seems odd to viciously attack the very health care workers who are trying to stop this outbreak.

It seems odd to me to canonize people who have made mistakes - and to insist that those mistakes weren't mistakes - if we are trying to stop Ebola in its track Ebola is a deadly virus, which kills roughly half of the people who contract it. We can't afford mistakes, and pointing them out so they can be corrected is an important part of minimizing the risks.

I have not started threads to viciously attack health care workers, or even to chastise them. But when the real mistakes that have been made are being touted as perfection (as they have been in several threads with all cap headlines, name calling including vulgarities at anyone who dares to point out the mistakes) I am going to speak up, because acknowledging and preventing the repeat of those mistakes is more important than someone's feelings being bent out of shape.

He was undoubtedly aware of the fact that the contacts of anyone who develops ebola would have to be tracked. It's not vilifying him to state that he should have self-quarantined. Yes, he's a hero. That doesn't mean he didn't fuck up.

are not isolating himself in his apartment.

Not to mention that he also reported feeling fatigued on Tuesday which - if you recall - was the same timeline for Vinson.

Per press conference, they supposedly started Thursday morning.

Wed, no symptoms.
Thur, symptoms.

That article you linked claims his symptoms started on Wednesday.

See you tomorrow.

My understanding of the timeline is different from yours - even putting aside that he should have isolated himself on Tuesday when he started feeling fatigued, knowing he had been exposed to Ebola.

Thursday is when he started having symptoms, according to the press conference.

and went bowling.

And he only called the authorities when "he felt worse."

He felt fatigue on Tuesday, "symptoms" on Wednesday, and "worse"on Thursday, when he finally called authorities. And someone at the hospital said s/he'd wondered why he waited that long to come in, according to the NYTimes account.

until accurate information is released. My apologies for letting myself get sucked into trying to make sense of first, rapid, inaccurate, conflicting reports.

To take my own advice
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025671785

that the CDC's requirement of a 101.6 temp for diagnosis was too high. It missed people who would register positive on an actual Ebola test and kept people from having treatment as early as possible.

I hope every hospital will take note and consider any temp over 100 to warrant investigation, in people who have been exposed to Ebola and exhibit other "Ebola like symptoms."

obviously they would hope they don't have it.

But the minute anyone who has been around ebola starts to feel "off", they ought to reflexively, automatically self-isolate.

I agree. I understand the denial. But this is too important to "deny."

Plus, it seems the earlier they catch it the easier it is to treat.

and took prudent action. It is frightening that there is an Ebola case in NYC but honestly ignoring the epidemic in Africa caused the problem to begin with.
I lived in NYC years ago. I think the city is up to this. They learned a lot from Dallas.
There have been healthcare workers from all over the world traveling in and out of Ebola countries. They aren't quarantined. This has been going on since the spring. And for some to suggest they don't understand how serious ebola is sounds ignorant. I believe they know better than any of us what they're dealing with and would not carelessly infect others if they were sick. It sounds to me like all 3 infected here took appropriate action.

And all I can go by is how they behave.

You don't fly on a plane with a low grade fever if you have been exposed and are in the incubation period. You just don't, if you have any sense at all about how serious Ebola is.

The reports for this doctor are conflicting, but all the reports I have seen put his first symptoms on Tuesday - 2 days before he isolated himself. Some reports put his more serious symptoms (fever, pain, and nausea) on Wednesday - when he was bowling, riding the subways and taking taxis. Others put them on Thursday. He should have taken himself out of circulation on Tuesday - and if he really did have a fever, pain, fatigue, and nausea on Wednesday, there is no excuse for continuing to be out and about.

" ignoring the epidemic in Africa caused the problem to begin with."
"This has been going on since the spring. And for some to suggest they don't understand how serious ebola is sounds ignorant."

People that want to be afraid are going to be afraid no matter what anyone says, no matter how much scientific proof there is.

I am still frustrated with the abuse they give to those who get sick. It's ugly.

Err on the side of caution, always, period.

It's 3 weeks of your life versus possibly, potentially, endangering the lives of others. Whether that risk is miniscule, or not.

Part of the "adult conversation" should be respecting the concerns of the general public who don't want to worry about catching this from, say, a taxicab, which has been known to happen in Monrovia.

That said I think blaming the Doctor here is pointless. He did something noble, and everyone hopes he recovers quickly.

is that people will not turn their fucking televisions off.

... when you get the "blaming-the-victim" on TV, then you come on here and post and get the same thing. I'm with you and your wife. I wish him a speedy recovery and hope that his friends have avoided contracting the disease.

followed his example. I don't however believe he should have quarantined himself for three weeks to
accommodate the over-the-top fear of ebola of others. He knew ebola and is a doctor and knew what to look out for and what to do. He acted and alerted authorities at the first sign of ebola symptoms which was responsible and protective of his fellow human beings. This virus is nasty and to be respected and a concern but really----I'm quite fed up at media or commentators always telling Americans we should be spineless and very afraid whether it's terrorism, a bad storm, an immigrant or a virus. Wish we had more media and leaders telling Americans, "Get a grip, folks!"

Sad to say, some of that same talk is occurring right here on DU.

He has no good excuse for his reckless abandon of proper procedure for a 70% deadly disease.

in addition. I suspect he was waiting for some symptom less ambiguous and more 'characteristic' of ebola...like the fever of 103F.

I'm sure that the practice for a person with proximity to ebola at liberty except for self-monitoring for very characteristic symptoms is not very reassuring to the public, at least as the public perceives transmissability and self-monitoring.

"Spencer took several trips on the New York subway in the past week, visited the Gutter bowling alley in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn on Wednesday night and took an Uber cab, all before he began to display symptoms, officials said.

He began to feel feverish on Thursday between 10am and 11am. He contacted Doctors Without Borders, the organisation with which he had been working in Africa, which in turn contacted the New York department of health. Officials organised for him to be transported to Bellevue hospital in the city, a designated site for Ebola patients, under strictly controlled conditions."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/24/doctor-tests-positive-for-ebola-at-new-york-hospital

"The New York City Health Department tells CBS News the fever was low-grade, 100.3 degrees, not 103 degrees as was originally, widely reported.

Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian organization, said per the guidelines it provides its staff members on their return from Ebola assignments, "the individual engaged in regular health monitoring and reported this development immediately." Travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone must report in with health officials daily and take their temperature twice a day, as Spencer did. He also limited his direct contact with people, health officials said.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebola-craig-spencer-nyc-doctor-who-has-ebola-being-praised/

"He arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport on October 17, but he exhibited no symptoms of the virus until Thursday morning, said Dr. Mary Travis Bassett, New York City's health commissioner.

Did he have any symptoms?

The 33-year-old did not have any symptoms after his return, but he developed a fever, nausea, pain and fatigue Thursday morning, authorities said. He began feeling sluggish a couple of days ago, but his fever spiked to 100.3 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 Celsius) the day his symptoms appeared."
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/24/health/new-york-ebola-timeline/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

ITA. If it wasn't for these medical professionals, ebola could have been at pandemic levels because no one would want to diagnose and treat others.

These people are heroes, but the media is showing their cowardice.

he wouldn't have scored a 22. So yea, it is his fault.

I forget where I heard that, maybe it was in my Virology and Immunology, newsletter, or The Onion.. I read everything, you can't have enough information.. :p

Ebola.

Fear mongering is far too useful.