Fear and quarantine in New Jersey.

I believe that Ebola is a serious disease, I really do. But to date, exactly zero Americans ---and one West African has died from the disease here on American soil.


Sadly, this hasn't stopped people like Chris Christie and the right wing fear machine from making a mountain out of a molehill. I guess it's a good election tactic. If Willie Horton type ads doesn't fire up your base, the fear of the president bringing plane loads of Ebola infected Africans to America certainly will. 


Poor Kaci Hickox should have been greeted as a hero after going to West Africa to help to fight the terrible disease head on. Instead she was held against her own will in New Jersey after Mr. Christie enacted a mandatory quarantine.


And I am ripping Christie and the right, but New York's democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, is also as culpable for this travesty that beset this woman.


When politicians start defying scientist and they take such drastic measures as holding unsuspecting citizens against their will, we have to step back and realize that we might just have some issues as a country.

“'Her civil rights were violated,' Siegel told ABC News. “At a minimum, she could bring an action for damages. But I think her goal is to try to revise the current policies with regard to, for example, mandatory quarantines.”

'when you look at what happened and how it happened, you come away with the sense that this policy was based on fear and politics rather on medical fact, and we can’t have the politicians directing these kinds of important issues,' Siegel said. "


I hope that she does bring an action for damages. It should be fun to see where this goes.


Still, it's always interesting to read the comments after a story, and this one was no exception.


A sampling:


---I think Kaci Hickox is being completely selfish and irresponsible. We have already seen 2 nurses get infected on US soil and doctors evacuated back to the states because they were infected. Then there is the doctor who spent 6 days in NYC before he was diagnosed. The US response to Ebola has been sloppy and extremely lucky. We are lucky that there were not hundreds of new cases because of all the mistakes that were made. Twenty-one days of quarantine is a small price to pay to be 100% sure that you will not infect and kill another person. The elderly, small children, people with weak immune systems and pregnant women would all be at much greater risk to die from ebola than a healthy adult. We do need healthcare workers to help with the ebola crisis and we do believe they are true heros but until ebola is understood a lot better than it is today, let's err on the side of common sense and caution and use quarantine for the purpose it was intended instead of lawyering up and demanding to skip quarantine because it violates your civil liberties. Epic fail in both common sense and good science.---

--What a selfish act coming from someone who took a vow to help others. Probably has student loans to pay off. Stay out of Indiana Kaci. We don't want you!--

                    

--Total effing #$%$, this woman's attitude! If you go over to West Africa, you should, IN FACT, be quarantined for, at least, twenty-one days, if not longer. Any other course of action is absolutely absurd, no matter what the "experts" may be cowed into saying. --                

                    

--Grow up Nurse Hickox...I bet your state of Maine is grateful you were stopped in New Jersey rather than show up in your own State and the neighborhood where you live and they all wear masks around you. At least you now know you are not a carrier of this Disease.
I think it's great if you want the USA to pay for you to go to this Country and help out, but that doesn't mean we want you to bring that Disease back home to our Country. --

 --What a bunch of money grubbing Liberal GARBAGE! Civil rights violation! I think not! It is all I can do to contain myself. If this case ends up in this #$%$ getting paid I will have lost my faith in this country! What a load of #$%$! She should just be glad she does not have Ebola. Maybe we should box her up naked and send her back so she can get it and then whine about it! OMG! I am sick. -- [Source]

The fear mongering business is good these days.