Ebola Watch: New York City Edition (UPDATE: Diagnosis Confirmed)
Suspected victim now being examined at Bellevue Hospital.
(UPDATE: Officials have confirmed a diagnosis of Ebola. See our updated post here.
A physician who recently returned from a Doctors Without Borders mission to West Africa is in isolation at New York’s Bellevue Hospital after presenting with a 103 degree fever.
Here we go again. NBC News reports:
“While at this stage there is no confirmation that the individual has contracted Ebola, Doctors Without Borders, in the interest of public safety and in accordance with its protocols, immediately notified the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, which is directly managing the individual’s care,” Doctors Without Borders said in a statement.
Health care workers are among those at highest risk of being infected, because they work so closely with very ill patients and are in frequent contact with infectious bodily fluids such as vomit.
“The patient was transported by a specially trained HAZ TAC unit wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE),” the city health department said in a statement, adding that after consultation with the hospital and the CDC, they would test for Ebola. They are also checking him for malaria, salmonella and stomach viruses because they can all cause similar symptoms.
Dr. Craig Spencer, the latest patient, had been monitoring himself since his return, and thankfully did the right thing by reporting his fever to the appropriate officials. Reports haven’t revealed where Dr. Spencer was practicing, but if he was in a country that was placed under recently-implemented travel restrictions, the next few weeks could be…interesting…for elected officials:
if God forbid the NY doctor is diagnosed, the next two weeks are going to be politically crazy
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) October 23, 2014
DHS claims that these restrictions will allow officials to control and monitor the influx of travelers from West Africa; but if there’s even the hint of a rumor that Dr. Spencer came into the country while we were debating the merits of limiting travel, there’s going to be questions.
Questions, and enough negative ad time to bury any other issue candidates are trying to push with less than two weeks until Election day.
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Comments
I’m sick of these do-gooders trying to get into heaven by helping the “less-fortunate” in a foreign country with no concern at all for their own countrymen.
Ayn Rand was absolutely correct that altruism was destroying America.
They’re just stroking their pychopath Ego.
Rand was whip smart and helpful to consider, up to some point. However her philosophy is therapeutic in low doses, poison in higher.
I’m so proud of fellow humans willing to put their own lives at risk, and who have the knowledge and training to do so to help in all sorts of very dangerous endeavors. However what emergency medical specialist CRAIG SPENCER did upon return home, was not different from a special forces soldier returning home to then act irresponsibly by firing off a loaded gun in the air a few times a day. There HAS TO BE A MANDATORY 40 DAY ABSOLUTE QUARANTINE for such otherwise heroic men and women returning from the front of the war on ebola and marburg,
Ebola has no heart at all. No special exceptions whatsoever for heroism, altruism, or good feelings.
AND basic, common sense says that quarantine HAS to be served OVER THERE.
Not here. Otherwise, all you’ve done is import cases that are confirmed here, and MUST be treated here with all the attendant risks that entails.
Again, just simple game theory.
The NYT says this is a confirmed case of Ebola!
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/nyregion/craig-spencer-is-tested-for-ebola-virus-at-bellevue-hospital-in-new-york-city.html
What this doctor did is so stupid and so arrogant he might as well have been a terrorist bent on releasing Ebola into the general population right in NYC. I cannot find any sympathy for him (nor that nurse in TX with her wedding emergency). I can’t help hoping he serves as a very graphic object lesson to all doctors. And I don’t believe anyone treating Ebola Over There should be allowed back in Over Here without a long quarantine somewhere NOT HERE.