I am going to go out on a limb and project that there are going to be historic election results on November 4th that would have been unimaginable until this August, when reports on Ebola coming to this country began filling the news.
This has transformed the women that Democrats have historically relied on, “soccer moms”, into “health and safety moms”.
Because I am both a mother and an environmental health and safety professional, other mothers question me on the latest news related to both Ebola and the potentially deadly Enterovirus D-68. Every last one of those women say that we should have had travel bans, mandatory quarantines, and that the administration isn’t being completely candid in its reports related to these pathogens.
For example, there is news that the New Jersey nurse quarantined after returning from work with Ebola patients in Africa was just released:
A nurse who was quarantined at a hospital in New Jersey after returning from West Africa was released Monday, her attorney said.Kaci Hickox, who told CNN the quarantine was violating her rights, was discharged after testing negative for Ebola.Hickox was put in isolation Friday after returning to New Jersey from a month in Sierra Leone.Her quarantine, part of a days-old policy the governors of New York and New Jersey instituted for all health care workers who’ve had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa, has been criticized widely by health care experts.On Sunday, she spoke by phone with CNN’s Candy Crowley and Elizabeth Cohen.”This is an extreme that is really unacceptable, and I feel like my basic human rights have been violated,” Hickox said. She said she was flummoxed as to how New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has no medical training, could describe her as “obviously ill.”
This video summarizes the story from CNN:
California mom and citizen activist, Sarah B., is angry at the Hickox release and feels that it seems to be a violation of her family’s rights: “I cannot believe the arrogance of these nurses, who keep on saying Ebola is hard to get. Nobody really knows how Ebola is transmitted, and five of the authors on a paper about this virus died of the disease before it was published. I am sure the workers who have gotten infected think they were doing everything right, too.”
Sarah noted that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s willingness to initiate a quarantine procedure elevated her opinion of him, in terms of the 2016 Presidential cycle. “Even though Christie released her after two tests came back negative, the fact that he recognized that viruses don’t pay attention to political scripts, and that he needed to protect his state’s citizens more than cater to the administration, meant a lot to me. He was showing the kind of leadership I expect from someone serious about really governing.”
She indicated that her husband, who works with a local police agency, could potentially be exposed to Ebola as part of his first responder duties. Her family has discussed a plan to implement a proactive self-quarantine program, should it be necessary. I, on the other hand, have not taken on certain work-related commitments because for the sake of my family I do not want to assume health risks of this magnitude.
Neither of us is complaining about our “human rights”.
In a nutshell: If you want to go to Africa and save the sick, then commit to some time in isolation; as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate on their website for this family of viruses, “application of viral hemorrhagic fever isolation precautions is currently the centerpiece of Filovirus control.” American lives are no less valuable.
In terms of Enterovirus D-68, I find it interesting that women have been most proactive in covering the nationwide epidemic, including Sharyl Attkisson, Tammy Bruce, and yours truly. This pathogen is now in almost every state, and officials are now running tests to see if it took the life of a Tennessee student. The CDC has just confirmed 2 cases in Spokane, Washington.
Dawn Wildman, President of the SoCal Tax Revolt Coalition, says she has been fielding some phone calls from new independents who are mostly women. “I had one lady tell me that the immigration protesters in Murrieta were prescient, as a big complaint that the demonstrators had was the potential for spreading disease. It turns out that one of her relatives has a kid who was hospitalized with the enterovirus, and wants to get involved so something like this doesn’t happen again.”
Viruses do not care about party politics. In about a week, some politicians are going to learn the hard way that today’s “health and safety moms” don’t either.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY