How many people have infected someone at the "exact moment" they begin to run a fever? If this is a legitimate concern, why have we seen NO ONE in the US come up with ebola by simply "being around" someone who has just begun to spike a fever? Shouldn't SOMEONE around Mr. Duncan have become ill? He exposed 43 people after he spiked a fever. Shouldn't one or two or three have become sick if this fear is even remotely legit? None of the ER folks got sick-why not? They examined him when he was symptomatic-up close and personal, and not one of them is sick. SOMEBODY should have shown illness with that many people interacting with him in those first few days. Why haven't they? What about the people sharing the plane with Amber Vinson? If someone is contagious in the initial minutes or hours of experiencing symptoms, at least ONE of the hundreds of people sharing those planes should be sick by now. What about Nina Pham's fiance? Isn't tomorrow his 21st day? Why isn't he sick? Amber's family members-are they still okay?
I think it is a VERY dangerous thing to deny people their freedom when they are not sick when there has been zero evidence that the moment they begin to show their first symptom they are a public health threat. It's not been even remotely shown to be the case and "well, I'm just afraid it might happen" or "better safe than sorry" is a pretty poor rationale for locking people up imo in light of the fact that there is no science that backs up that claim and no practical evidence that it goes beyond the theoretical.
People keep saying we don't have a large enough sample size to conclude that people are not crazy infectious in early stages because so far we've only had 4 people exhibit early symptoms of ebola while in the US. But I think it's a great way to observe it. We have been "clean" and there are no confounding variables present. In other words, we don't have a lot of people sick with ebola here, so we can observe what happens with an early infected person without wondering if the presence of other sick people around them have muddied the waters. We have a solid waste management system, so if someone around a sick person in the earliest stage gets sick, we don't have to wonder if it was actually contamination from infected waste in the community. We don't have houses full of people sick with ebola to cause confusion as to what point Bob got sick because wife just began showing symptoms but Grandma is in the same house vomiting and having diarrhea. We have the perfect clean slate to observe if a person in their initial stages of ebola is in fact infecting others. And it just has not happened. The notion that the over 50 folks who were around Mr. Duncan after he began to experience symptoms and before he was admitted to the hospital (43 friends and family, as well as workers from ER visit #1 who were not wearing protective gear) have some kind of magical resistance to ebola just defies belief.
This nurse is causing no harm to anyone by going on a bike ride. The fact that the thought of the police shooting someone in this situation has even occurred to anyone should be really scary to all of us.
