"I had spent a month watching children die alone". It is still the land of the brave, she proves it.

[Fred Sanders]

Last edited Sun Oct 26, 2014, 12:22 PM - Edit history (3)

How Not To Treat Health Care Workers Returning From West Africa, NY-NJ Edition

"I had spent a month watching children die, alone. I had witnessed human tragedy unfold before my eyes. I had tried to help when much of the world has looked on and done nothing.

At the hospital, I was escorted to a tent that sat outside of the building. The infectious disease and emergency department doctors took my temperature and other vitals and looked puzzled. “Your temperature is 98.6,” they said. “You don't have a fever but we were told you had a fever.”

After my temperature was recorded as 98.6 on the oral thermometer, the doctor decided to see what the forehead scanner records. It read 101. The doctor felts my neck and looked at the temperature again. “There’s no way you have a fever,” he said. “Your face is just flushed.”

My blood was taken and tested for Ebola. It came back negative.

I sat alone in the isolation tent and thought of many colleagues who will return home to America and face the same ordeal. Will they be made to feel like criminals and prisoners?

I recalled my last night at the Ebola management center in Sierra Leone. I was called in at midnight because a 10-year-old girl was having seizures. I coaxed crushed tablets of Tylenol and an anti-seizure medicine into her mouth as her body jolted in the bed."

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/10/nurse-detained-new-jersey-upon-return-west

.......................

If you were to read epidemiologist, nurse and super hero Kaci Hickox's letter to the American public, and you believe in medical science (I know you do) you will want to put Governor Christie and Governor Cuomo in a steel cage and hang it in a tree for public display, not even an unheated isolation tent with no visitors and food and water tossed in at regular intervals.

And keep them there until they admitted to the pandering.

Folks here unanimously must realize that to stop Ebola it has to be stopped in West Africa...do they not? Really, you there with the new IPad and the itchy keyboard fingers, how do you not know that?

Reject the fear, fuck the pandering politicians, hug a scientist today, they are your ONLY line of defence. Who thinks the TV talking heads and pandering, posturing, prancing, dancing no nothing politicians are going to go to Sierrra Leona and dispense their wisdom and Ebola because it is not me. Politicians are elected to make decisions, it is not optional to make stupid anti-science ones.

As much as Ebola tries to kill you, it is these medical heroes that will kill Ebola...these are medical troops...we do support our troops, right? Tell me the difference, I am curious, I could be the one being hysterical, right?

What an embarrassment to the country this pandering to the public is, not unlike the embarrassing infection of science denial seen right here at science loving DU...I am shocked and appalled at the overall membership of this site not consisting solely of science lovers. It should be mandatory, this love.

Yes, I said it, let the histironics begin, we should have a purity test also and this is it: believe the fucking science, believe the President, or go join Fox News.

...................

[Baitball Blogger]

1. What a brave person.

[seabeyond]

2. it just reminds me so much of the TSA/Patriot act bullshit, hoping people would not buy into the

crap out of fear. knowing the damaging. wanting us to stand strong in brave, and knowing, it was not gonna happen.

and knowing, what we lost.

i hope the other governor's all say no, to NJ and NY choice

[Fred Sanders]

3. Fear got us the Iraq war, fear got us Fearbola. The common elements are the freaked out media and the

work-in-progress and still evolving human reptilian brain.


"Deliver us from evil" is what the folks want, maybe some hot milk and an aspirin would do the trick as well as pandering?

[awoke_in_2003]

36. Scared people

are easier to control. That is why there will always be a bogeyman there trying to kill us.

[seabeyond]

37. educated, informed, aware people do not sit in that fear. so would behoove people to give that a

try.

i hear ya

[awoke_in_2003]

38. This is why they are trying so hard...

to break the education system. The children of the 60's were smart, and asked questions that people didn't want to answer. They fought to make things right. The wealthy do not want this to happen again.

[seabeyond]

39. i won't argue with you there. nt

[riderinthestorm]

4. I'll K&R this because her essay is important but fyi this is a dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025714276

Kaci's essay got a pretty thorough thrashing yesterday which may be why your thread is moving slowly...

[Fred Sanders]

5. I love the smell of burning dissent in the morning. I am right, the dissenters are wrong.

I am with the science, it is my blanket, it makes me comfortable, I trust it, I love those that possess scientific knowledge I have no time left to learn.

I do know it is a duplicate, but I saw the unbiased, media driven fear it generated, it is my duty to keep the debate alive and the information flowing, that is just me. A tale can be told a thousand ways.

[riderinthestorm]

6. Carry on!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

8. I think I love you!

[adirondacker]

7. Excellent OP! Thanks for posting. nt

[MineralMan]

9. Those who volunteer to treat Ebola victims in Africa are heroes.

It is that simple. They may need to be quarantined, but they should be treated as the heroes they are. Anything less is unacceptable.

[Fred Sanders]

10. I saw one OP here titled "Obama should rent a 1st class hotel for quarantine". You know, to make

the pandering to the masses by pandering politicians more digestible, because somehow it is all
Obama's fault and he can personally purchase a hotel that would love to have the customers...can you imagine? As if Black Magic Obama just has to shake his magic Kenyan ju jo sticks and it all goes away and so why is he not?

Sometimes the shee breadth and depth of the idiocy takes my breath away.

I know it is useless fighting the media fear mongers, as Fearbola fades they will switch to Ialamaphobia for the masses next dose of unease...do folks WANT to live in fear, do they want to equate caution with fear because caution is too complex, fear is simple?

[MineralMan]

13. DU is home to a wide range of opinions and intelligence and knowledge levels.

I'm never amazed at anything I see posted here.

When it comes to Ebola, a lot of people are reacting out of ignorance and fear. That's not surprising, but when it happens officially, some very brave people who have risked their lives to help people with the disease get treated like criminals. That's very unfortunate. No doubt some monitoring is needed for people who have been exposed to the virus, but we tend to forget the individuals when we plan for such things. So, a health care worker sits for hours in an empty room at an airport while frightened people try to figure out what to do.

It's not a simple equation, but it needs better balance and a focus on the people who have risked their lives to try to help others. I'm in awe of health care workers who volunteer to go to Liberia, Guinea or Sierra Leone to do what they can to help. I know that it's not something I'd be prepared to do, even if I had the education and skills.

[Downwinder]

30. The same attitudes led to Internment Camps.

[MineralMan]

31. Indeed it did.

A real failure of American principles that was.

[seabeyond]

14. Sometimes the sheer breadth and depth of the idiocy takes my breath away.

do folks WANT to live in fear

that is what i am asking this morning reading scary guys OP

[mountain grammy]

27. Takes my breath away too... good post, thank you.

[customerserviceguy]

33. Agreed

They are heroic, but their hero status does not make them immune from acquiring the disease and bringing it back to the countries that they came from.

No doubt, an effective vaccine would make this whole controversy unnecessary. I hope we're on target to get one soon. Maybe the best human test subjects would be medical workers going to West Africa, if we got dozens or hundreds of them back without a single one having an infection, that would end the quarantining quickly.

[whereisjustice]

11. It's a broader problem of our police state. Patriot Act/NSA set the low bar. It's below ground.

[Fred Sanders]

12. I think the introduction of social media, communication crack for the masses, plays a large part.

I think Facebook, for example, as the pioneer of privacy abandonment, lulled folks into voluntarily surrendering their privacy, paving the way for the government to smoothly ride the highway straight into your bedroom.

Now I buy some condoms at the drug store with my credit card and I get emails for lubricant....so now I use cash....fuck the discount, I can refuse bribes in return for my privacy, and the merchant and I get to screw the credit card company out of their plastic card commission.

[YarnAddict]

15. There are actually two issues here

First is the potential for an outbreak of Ebola, which is highly unlikely.

The second, with far more dangerous potential, is an epidemic of fear. I think the effort to quarantine healthcare workers is to control the possibility of public panic. Widespread panic could seriously affect the economy, to say nothing of the infrastructure--schools closing (which happened in Cleveland,) healthcare workers calling in sick (happened in New York,) people avoiding hospitals and clinics out of fear of exposure.

There is a need to communicate to people that their concerns are being addressed, and that government is on top of things. Thus, the quarantine.

Is it fair. No, absolutely NOT. But it may be necessary for the greater good.

[Fred Sanders]

16. "There is a need to communicate to people their (edit: unfounded paranoia) is being addressed....

Fixed it.

[YarnAddict]

18. Same difference.

You don't think that every word out of the mouths of EVERYONE in charge is aimed at avoiding panic? What do you think the pix of the President hugging Ebola patients are all about? Something serious is on the line here, and it ISN'T an Ebola epidemic.

[Fred Sanders]

19. Obama hugging the nurse is because Obama is a compassionate man, that is what that was all about.

He understands the science, he has no fear because there none in the real world, not the media world, none to be truly had, not in the land of the brave and of in any land with a robust alet health care system, though some see The Hug as a sign of bravery, of politics, of foolishness, I see the compassion.

[YarnAddict]

24. Bullshit.

I agree that there is nothing to fear from the Ebola virus. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. But most of Murrica thinks there is, and if hugging an Ebola patient is going to do something to quell that fear, then that is what the Prez will do, and with good reason.

[me b zola]

23. About the outbreak of fear

I think the best solution would be to quarantine those carry & spread fear, it is highly infectious you know. We'll begin with fox news and the producers @ cnn who tell their news readers what to say on air. Don't forget the rw politicians making hay of spreading this fear.

[YarnAddict]

25. A complete media blackout of Ebola coverage

would be a good thing. Unfortuntely, because of the 1st Amendment, that really can't be done. The next best thing is to control the potential for panic. JMHO.

[kestrel91316]

29. You think it's "unfortunate" that we have a First Amendment???

I know all I need to know about you.

[YarnAddict]

32. Oh, good grief.

That was sarcasm directed toward someone who wants to "quarantine" news outlets.

[me b zola]

42. Information is good

Fear mongering is bad.

[Fred Sanders]

26. Fear is clearly far more infectious than Ebola, and more deadly, and it IS airborne, on the air waves.

[greatlaurel]

17. K and R

Good luck to Kaci Hickox. She is a wonderful person to have gone to West Africa.

Sending wishes to Dr. Spencer for a speedy recovery.

[WestCoasterDude]

20. If I could DURec this more than once I would ....

The politicians are little people playing to the fear and uncertainty of the masses. Rather than show leadership they play to the fears. Unbelievable.

[diabeticman]

21. Reading this just made my wife ashamed to be an American. "We should be better than this."

[onecaliberal]

22. Fear has been used forever to control

weak minds.
I don't listen to anything the talking heads say, they are paid handsomely to lie deceive and spread fear.
Health science deniers are on the level with climate science deniers. Their irrational fear of everything makes it simple to control them.
The people fighting Ebola in Africa do not deserve to be treated like criminals when they return home. They deserve a parade.
Ebola must be killed in Africa if we want to stop the spread.

[99Forever]

28. I refuse to be fed panic.

This brave woman and all that are working to stop this disease in it's tracks, deserve better than the fear-mongering jerks would have us do. I agree, hang those a**holes in a cage from a tree.

[KMOD]

34. This is the woman that Govs. Cuomo, Christie and apparantly a handful of DU posters

believe they know more than.

http://www.uta.edu/unbranded/alumni/kaci-hickox.php

Alumna Kaci Hickox takes a reasoned approach to everything. She’s enthusiastic about nursing, but her career choices follow a logical order.

“I always felt a strong desire to work overseas with vulnerable populations, and nursing seemed to be a perfect avenue,” she says. “On top of that, I knew there was—and still is—a nursing shortage and that I would have job security.”

It just made sense to pursue a two-year postgraduate fellowship in applied epidemiology with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Las Vegas.

Think of the CDCP’s Epidemic Intelligence Service as the CIA of public health. EIS teams respond to crises such as the West Nile virus in the 1990s, the anthrax terrorist attacks after 9-11, and the pandemic H1N1 influenza outbreak. Hickox ’02 works with the country’s top epidemiologists to analyze and improve health and disease surveillance.

Her first overseas project came in 2004 with the International Medical Corps after the tsunami in Indonesia. “While the work there was difficult and challenging, both professionally and emotionally, it also made me feel alive in a new way,” she says.

After being turned down by Doctors Without Borders, she enrolled at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and received a Diploma in Tropical Nursing. She also graduated from Johns Hopkins University’s dual program for a Master in Public Health and Master of Science in Nursing.

Her perseverance paid off. She landed that position she wanted with Doctors Without Borders in Myanmar in Southeast Asia, where she spent two years managing three primary health care clinics. In 2010 she was working on a measles outbreak in northern Nigeria when the Doctors Without Borders team conducted a medical investigation. Children were dying in one village, and the team discovered the cause to be acute lead poisoning from poor gold mining practices.

“After that experience and others like it, I realize that we need to find better ways to improve health surveillance and outbreak response in resource-poor settings,” Hickox says. “My training in the EIS with the CDC will allow me to learn the gold standard of this kind of work.”



Excellent post Fred. Rec'd

[etherealtruth]

35. This would make an excellent OP

[greatlaurel]

40. I agree, please make this an OP.

Kaci Hickox is being imprisoned in solitary confinement without access to running water. This is disgusting. After 21 days under these conditions, it will be a miracle that she does not get sick. Good grief. Who is running that hospital? They sound like complete idiots.

We already know Cuomo and Christie are ignorant thugs who will do anything for power.

[KMOD]

41. Done n/t

[PADemD]

43. How often are the forehead scanners recalibrated?

Sounds like the scanner used on her needs to be recalibrated. Any positive fever test should be confirmed with an oral thermometer reading.

[Fred Sanders]

44. Yes, proof of the incompetency of Christie and the fact he had no plan, no consultation with experts

or even the airport, he just ordered it and then flew off to Arkansas to congratulate himself on his brilliant political tactic of ginning up fear and hating science.

All about to backfire like you will not believe, I predict.

Science is immune to all but the biggest lies, and Christie picked the wrong nurse and certified epidemiologist to pick a fight with, yes he did.

Any emergency appearance on Fox News always means there is trouble to dig out of, but science will not let you out once you jump in to deep.

Cave by Christie by Tuesday.