re: Confirmed case of Ebola in New York City

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Then ACCORDING TO THE CDC, he was NOT CONTAGIOUS!

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Did the Dr exercise good judgement, no. However, we don't know the details yet. So I would stop jumping to conclusions just yet.

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Remember, ebola is extremely hard to transmit.

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it is extremely hard to transmit outside of a healthcare setting or west african living conditions. None of Duncan's relatives that slept on the same couch caught it.

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Or does the CDC non-quarantine policy for Ebola-country travelers suck?

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The policy is fine if ppl especially healthcare workers who know better would exercise just a little common sense. However there is no way to legislate or regulate common fricking sense. There is an average of 75 passengers from ebola countries a day coming into JFK alone. What are you going to do put them on a bus and ship em to a KFC (south park reference) for 21 days? That is completely unneccessary and unamerican. Put a cop outside their residence or hotel, we don't have the manpower for that.

He probably picked his nose and licked his fingers before putting his fingers in the grooves.

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Or are you panicking again?

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Whoa there Hoss.

Let's be crystal clear.
I'm not the one saying we should "shoot the fellow in the face".

Got it?

The CDC has a policy in place.
If it's effective, fine. A-okay.
If it's effective why is the CDC worried about who he came into contact with when he was well enough to go bowling?
Either he was non-contagious, or he wasn't.

If he wasn't contagious, then WTF is all the CDC-driven hullabaloo about in this case?

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The CDC has a policy in place.
If it's effective, fine. A-okay.
If it's effective why is the CDC worried about who he came into contact with when he was well enough to go bowling?
Either he was non-contagious, or he wasn't.

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dude did you seriously ask that question? The reason why they are concerned would be so that on the small chance that someone did start exhibiting symptoms they would be aware and not have what happened when Duncan originally went to TPH. Anyone with a half a brain knows that answer.

I've lived 30 years in a community devastated with HIV. I can't count the number of friends who have died from it on my hands and feet. One was my ex when I was in law school and who would later become one of my best friends who passed away two years ago. We had dinner on a Thursday. The following Tuesday he was dead. Looked as healthy as an ox and had first been diagnosed about 10 years ago. I've lived my entire adult life accepting that it could happen to me. And while I've been very fortunate, there's still a far greater chance that I will be infected by HIV than Ebola.

You can't live your life in fear.

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There is an average of 75 passengers from ebola countries a day coming into JFK alone

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There are 150/day across the US in total.

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What are you going to do put them on a bus and ship em to a KFC

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"You are going to do" exactly what has been done, albeit belatedly, with the THP healthcare workers. "You are going to do" exactly what was done with the NBC news crew -- Perhaps you remember all the shock of Dr. Nancy Snyderman going out for soup? Quarantine them.

It is very simple. Send the folks into self-quarantine for three weeks. If they break it, enforce the quarantine then follow it with a one to six month jail term.

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The reason why they are concerned would be so that on the small chance that someone did start exhibiting symptoms they would be aware and not have what happened when Duncan originally went to TPH.

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English please?

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Physicians volunteering with Doctors Without Borders follow strict protocols as they return from the Ebola zone. They first travel through Europe and are debriefed in Brussels. Doctors can remain in the field for a maximum of four to six weeks; upon returning to the United States, they are told to follow CDC guidelines. Those without any known exposure to Ebola are told to monitor their health for a 21-day incubation period, according to the organization.?

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He did all that.

That really wasn't my point. My point was I've long past living in fear of what ifs.

But to yours, the reproduction number of Ebola is surprisingly not that high.

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The reproduction number, or "R nought," is a mathematical term that tells you how contagious an infectious disease is. Specifically, it's the number of people who catch the disease from one sick person, on average, in an outbreak.*

Take, for example, measles. The virus is one of the most contagious diseases known to man. It's R0 sits around 18. That means each person with the measles spreads it to 18 people, on average, when nobody is vaccinated. (When everyone is vaccinated, the R0 drops to essentially zero for measles).

At the other end of the spectrum are viruses like HIV and hepatitis C. Their R0s tend to fall somewhere between 2 and 4. They're still big problems, but they spread much more slowly than the measles.

And that brings us back to Ebola. Despite its nasty reputation, the virus's R0 really isn't that impressive. It typically sits around 1.5 to 2.0.

Even in the current epidemic in West Africa, where the virus has been out of control, each person who has gotten sick has spread Ebola to only about two others, on average.
LINK

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Sounds like Ebola has a longer incubation period than 21 days

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I believe I heard WHO is calling for 42 day quarantine now.