Doctor in New York City Is Sick with Ebola

NYCs Ebola Patient Visited:

-Harlem

-An Uber car

-The High Line

-A restaurant

-A Train

-Jogged 3 miles

-L Train

-1 Train

-The Gutter

Cold comfort if he has created a public health crisis in the city. He should have self-quarantined upon his return, in my opinion.

To borrow an idea from math, "doing good" isn't a commutative, infections and diseases are. Have some respect for others and slow your roll before going out during the 21 day post exposure window.

It's a bit like saying, "Hey I've saved lives over here so I have earned the right to be irresponsible over here". Because you know, karma balances out. No, the world doesn't work like that. And you aren't doing any good propagating this idea either because it encourages this privileged way of thinking.

As much as this guy isn't being vilified (and say what you want about the government spinning its story of ebola being hard to transmit), lets think clearly and rationally. He knew the risks that he could possibly be infected and decided to endanger others when he could have easily stayed home or gone anywhere to a more isolated environment (upstate NY is calling). It is well known symptoms generally show up by the 10th day. Today is his day 10.

It's very interesting that the government has locked down this guys apartment, yet if you need contact with bodily fluids to contract the disease why quarantine the apartment and surroundings? Could it be that droplets are a transmission method as many people are starting to suspect. Sneezing and coughing may spread these droplets to the floors and walls? And if that is the case, what about other objects that come in contact with saliva and other fluids like utensils, door handles, glasses...

   > He knew the risks that he could possibly be infected 
   > and decided to endanger others when he could have 
   > easily stayed home

That may be over stating things. Given that he is a doctor, and he is confident in his process with keeping clean, he might actually have a really hard time believing that he was infected. People have faith in their own abilities, that lets them do things which might put them at grave risk.

In the military service you will hear it as "trust in your training." Basically you believe you won't be the guy that gets shot or steps on a land mine or what ever because you trained really hard and you know you are implementing that training flawlessly.

It is entirely possible this person was so confident in their training, and their own competence in putting that training into action, that they believed it was impossible for them to be infected. They do the self monitoring because that is what you are supposed to do, but it never comes up positive because you did what you were supposed to do. This gets worse the more times you do something and the outcome is exactly as you expect it to be.

So I can believe this guy didn't believe he was at risk. Just like I have foolishly believed this small change I am checking in can't break anything[1]. One hopes he was asymptomatic when he went out. Unlike the guy in Texas who was showing symptoms and went home, or the nurse who had a fever and got on a plane anyway.

Sure you could put anyone coming back from West Africa in an airstream trailer [2] for 21 days but that is impractical if you want to support the process of fighting it in West Africa.

[1] I know, hugely different scale, but illustrative of my fight against my own assumptions in the pursuit of better process.

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Quarantine_Facility#medi...

At the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if people tend to let their guard down in the days and hours before they leave the country.

Instead of quarantining by default, I think it would be interesting to offer a free, relaxing vacation in a low population density region to people who are returning from helping in Africa. i.e. you cannot leave West Africa and return to a major city directly. Instead you fly back to your home country by way of a desirable destination and hang out there for a few weeks.