Sunday, October 19, 2014

Extreme Abundance of Caution Versus Extreme Abundance of Hubris in Ebola Scare

From NBC news today:  
A helicopter landed aboard a cruise ship Saturday to pick up a blood sample from a passenger who may have handled fluids from an Ebola patient, ahead of the Carnival Magic’s planned docking at Galveston, Texas, Sunday.
Carnival said Texas health officials requested that a sample be taken from the passenger and tested, but that the ship is still scheduled to arrive Sunday morning. The company said of the passenger, who is in quarantine, that “she’s feeling absolutely fine."
Absolutely fine. Really?  Why isn't everyone else who came into contact with an Ebola patient being tracked down and asked for blood samples?  Why was her cruise ship prevented from offloading her in Belize, and failed to stop as scheduled in Cozumel, Mexico?

Instead of telling us this is due solely to "an extreme abundance of caution" why not simply tell the truth and regain some credibility on this issue?

On October 16, the New Jersey Health Department said it expects all NJ hospitals to be able to handle an Ebola case.  Well, I hope this uninformed hubris does not come back to bite NJ healthcare workers, who intelligently suggested that cases go to biocontainment facilities, instead.

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