Ebola Nurse Leaves The Building

[cronus]

It's only Ebola if it's anything at all....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29836550

Ebola outbreak: Nurse Kaci Hickox defies quarantine

A US nurse who returned from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone has defied a quarantine order, leaving her house in Maine for a bike ride.

Kaci Hickox says isolation is unnecessary, as she has no symptoms and has tested negative for Ebola.

Maine officials have vowed to go to court to try to enforce the quarantine.

About 5,000 people have died of the disease in West Africa, but only nine patients have been treated for the virus on US soil.

Ebola, which is only spread through close contact with the bodily fluids of a sick patient, has a 21-day incubation period.

"I'm not willing to stand here and let my civil rights be violated when it's not science-based," she told reporters on Wednesday evening.

Ms Hickox returned to the US on Friday, landing at Newark International Airport.

Officials say she had a minor fever, necessitating a quarantine at a Newark, New Jersey, hospital.

(continued)

[pErvinalia]

Merka is an entertaining place. If we never got news out of the US, my life would be missing an important part.

[JimC]

What's the libertarian position here, dare I ask?

[piscator]

The lady has a point. Maine's Governor is milking public fears for political yardage more than public safety.


I imagine the Libertarian position as dug in with lots of ammo, as they now have their most legitimate reason in years to shoot whoever steps on their lawn.

[Seth]

The earliest and most fundamental power of government is the power to quarantine those who might transmit communicable diseases to others.

From the Libertarian perspective, a person who has been exposed to Ebola who fails to quarantine herself for the requisite incubation period to be certain she is not infected is initiating force against others she comes, or may come into contact with, which gives them the right to exercise force in self defense, including forcibly quarantining her.

Any responsible, credible medical worker coming from an Ebola hot zone who has any morals at all would self-quarantine voluntarily to ensure that they are not going to spread the disease.

Now, that said, putting her in a tent was unreasonable. Facilities should be provided that are comfortable and that provide all the necessities including food and unlimited electronic communications with loved ones. We should indeed treat these volunteers with dignity, respect and honor...while they are in quarantine for 21 days. And they should be fully compensated for that time spent in quarantine as well.

[pErvinalia]

If she doesn't have ebola, how has she been "exposed to ebola"?

And how is she initiating force if she tested negative for ebola? Guilty until proven innocent in Libboland??

[cronus]

Noticed a dozen journalists dying for a good story following her as she went for that bike ride and coming back with a sweat on.

[JimC]

Noticed a dozen journalists dying for a good story following her as she went for that bike ride and coming back with a sweat on.

Only a worry if they were bonking her, surely...

[piscator]

People with hemorrhagic fevers don't ride bicycles.

[Seth]

If she doesn't have ebola, how has she been "exposed to ebola"?

And how is she initiating force if she tested negative for ebola? Guilty until proven innocent in Libboland??

It can take up to 21 days for symptoms of Ebola to appear, and before those symptoms appear an infected person may test negative but still be brewing viri. She had a temperature when she was first monitored. She put it off to being angry, but the liberty interests of everyone else outweigh the temporary constraints on her liberty until the incubation period has passed which then proves that she is not infected with Ebola.

If, however, she travels about thinking she's not infected, but is, then as soon as she becomes symptomatic she is contagious, by which time it might be too late to prevent the spread of the virus to others. For example, if she should board a flight or take a cruise and become symptomatic while enroute she is endangering everyone in her vicinity.

Her detention is reasonable, appropriate, temporary and not harmful and occasioned by her refusal to abide by the quarantine order issued by the Governor, an order which is fully within his power. She is not "guilty" of anything other than being a silly twat who ought to know better.

[Seth]

People with hemorrhagic fevers don't ride bicycles.

They might if they are asymptomatic during the incubation period.

[cronus]

Surely there should be a military isolation facility of top security to shuffle off these potential mass killers Seth? A super-spreader might be deliberately trying to get even knowing their time is short. That's my line of thinking.

[pErvinalia]

If she doesn't have ebola, how has she been "exposed to ebola"?

And how is she initiating force if she tested negative for ebola? Guilty until proven innocent in Libboland??

It can take up to 21 days for symptoms of Ebola to appear, and before those symptoms appear an infected person may test negative but still be brewing viri. She had a temperature when she was first monitored. She put it off to being angry, but the liberty interests of everyone else outweigh the temporary constraints on her liberty until the incubation period has passed which then proves that she is not infected with Ebola.

If, however, she travels about thinking she's not infected, but is, then as soon as she becomes symptomatic she is contagious, by which time it might be too late to prevent the spread of the virus to others. For example, if she should board a flight or take a cruise and become symptomatic while enroute she is endangering everyone in her vicinity.

Her detention is reasonable, appropriate, temporary and not harmful and occasioned by her refusal to abide by the quarantine order issued by the Governor, an order which is fully within his power. She is not "guilty" of anything other than being a silly twat who ought to know better.

So she hasn't initiated force. Thanks for clarifying that.

[mistermack]

She's a nurse. She should be aware of the slightest rise in her temperature.
And she was tested for Ebola. If that test is accurate, she's clear.
In any case, if she infects anyone, it's likely to be a journalist.
No loss there.

[Hermit]

The earliest and most fundamental power of government is the power to quarantine those who might transmit communicable diseases to others.

That contradicts lolberardianism. Under lolberardianism you cannot restrict someone's freedom on the grounds that he/she might do something or cause something to happen.