Once again, fear and hysteria is pushing politicians to act on an Ebola threat. Rather than using the fear and hysteria to send even more resources to West Africa to confront and stop the outbreak at its source, politicians will push the local response (quarantining doctors and nurses that show no symptoms and have tested negative for Ebola). The NIH warns of the unintended consequences, such as losing doctors and other health workers who might otherwise go to Africa for a 4 week stretch getting a 3 week period tacked on back in the States that makes the costs and burden too much.

NYS and NJ are backing off their quarantine rules, allowing for voluntary home checks, which makes more sense. These professionals should be allowed to self monitor. They know the risks to themselves and others better than the politicians who are making these decisions.

And NJ is pushing back against the claims that the nurse was not in a climate controlled tent , which when seen in the light that NJ is backing off the quarantine and allowing the nurse to fly home to Maine to continue quarantine there, suggests that they did get it wrong.

There’s still a risk that people who aren’t health workers flying in with the disease and not realizing it, but that too can be addressed with voluntary screening and regular checks with the local health authorities.

At the moment, there’s a young child who’s being evaluated in Bellevue for symptoms but no test results as yet.