Why the culture of “me first” is spreading Ebola

I get that blaming Obama is the cool thing to do, but what about blaming the people who are actually doing dumb stuff? I mean, that nurse got a plane knowing she had a fever and had been in contact with an Ebola patient. That’s stupid, and she knowingly endangered hundreds of people. Now some clinical worker is on a damn cruise ship, and even though it’s a low risk person, COME ON YOU WENT ON A CRUISE.

And finally, US patient zero. A foreign national who concealed his disease and brought an incredibly dangerous disease to this country for the first time.

The selfishness all these people have displayed is absolutely mind boggling. Some things are more important than your friend’s wedding, your cruise vacation, or yes even seeing your family one last time before you die. A part of individual responsibility is sometimes giving up what you want to do because it’s in the best interests of the people around you. But thanks to people’s selfishness, hundreds of people have potentially been exposed to a deadly virus.

That’s what really bugs me about this. We know that it takes about 3 weeks for the virus to manifest its symptoms, and a healthcare worker of all people should know that. So you put your life on pause for three weeks, and then if you don’t have any symptoms you move on. But that was two much to ask. Three weeks would have meant missing a friend’s wedding or a Caribbean cruise! It’s insanity.

Good work, jerks.bOkay now you can all resume blaming Obama.

29 Comments

  1. The really strange thing? Because of the desire to use Ebola against the Obama admin, people are basically asking for MORE government control.

      1. It is not irony it is just downright stupidity much like you mentioned in your entire article.

    1. I don’t think it’s “more” government control as much as it’s “proper” government control. But since when has the government ever done anything the “right” way?!?!

      1. Given that controlling the outbreak of a virulent disease is, if anything is, defense of the nation, particularly when it involves people/vectors crossing the borders, I agree. Providing health care is distinct from interceding in epidemics.

        Calling that “calling for bigger government” is imprecise at best, puerile at worst.

        1. I was told that the TSA, NSA, and the Patriot Act were also essential for the defense of the nation…
          so, yeah.

          1. So you’re saying you “believe what you’re told” as opposed to applying your own critical thinking to particular issues to identify the very real distinctions between absolutely dissimilar situations and Constitutional questions?

            I think I see your problem.

          2. Actually, it’s pretty much the exact same situation. “O hay guys, we need to give more power to the Feds to stop this external threat, kay? It’s for national security, so it’s cool bro!”

            So, we wind up with our current system of ineffectual security theater, and have to spend more money, and we get our communications tapped. Because terrorism! Just imagine what’s about to happen to our medical system Because Ebola!

          3. Where on earth do you get “more power?” The phrase you used was “more government control.”

            The point I made is that no “more” control is needed. This is exactly what the CDC is designed to do and that control of the nation’s borders, via the travel restrictions desired, are *already* fully Constitutional and squarely in the Feds wheelhouse. No add’l controls are needed, the ones that are already to hand for this exact kind of circumstance just need to be used.

            Unlike the Patriot Act/TSA BS no “new” or “expanded” powers, agencies, or policies are needed.

  2. Moderator’s note: on this blog, you will refer to the President with either his title or his CORRECT name. Your choices are: the President, Mr. President, Mr. Obama, President Obama, or Obama. Any permutations of his name will be deleted, and you’ll get one warning. Further comments along those lines will result in a permanent ban.

    You may not like the President, you may not agree with his policies, but he is the President of the United States of America, and at least on this blog you will show the office some respect or you will be gone.

    Tom R, this is your only warning. -Caleb

  3. We once had a Democrat President who said “The buck stops here” and took responsibility for things on his “watch”.
    I’m with Tom, The Ebola problem is a manifestation of the fecklessness of the current adminsitration – and no that doesn’t absolve personal responsibility. Still, the nurse who flew had called the CDC, reporting her symptoms and was not told to stay home. This adminsitration talks about putting the THP staff on a no-fly list but still admits flights from the affected area.
    Quarantine before admittance, like border integrity, is a basic function of government.

    1. To poach a line from a friend, just because the RSO says it’s okay to shoot someone on the range doesn’t mean it actually is.

      1. Yeah I read that one too earlier today and have no quarrel with it as far as it goes. In this case the dereliction was mutual – I don’t know of any rangemasters who would tell someone it’s OK to shoot someone else; I ‘spose they’re out there – somewhere (somewhere I don’t want to be)

      2. Caleb, sorry but I have to disagree when you don’t know and you have an expert on the line saying “yeah it’s ok”… *most of the time* you’d do well to listen to the expert. Unfortunately currently it would seem that from the Dallas ER to the CDC my dog seems to know better than the experts (since it bears on the subject: bear’s advise is when you don’t feel well sleep on the couch)!

  4. Caleb, thanks for demanding respect for the office of the President. Harry Truman had that one right also with his interaction with General MacArthur

  5. I’m sure you’re wrong here because the MSM has been telling me that it’s the NRA’s fault.

  6. Caleb what your saying isn’t wrong… It’s just there’s a lot of really bad info out there and if we ignore that half of the equation we are well and truly screwed!
    A few cases in point:
    Patient zero: went to the hospital with early signs to get treatment. Turned away/sent home… How many people did he infect/expose in the next 48 hours?
    Nurse #1: the Cdc blamed her for “breaking protocol”… Well either a lot of people broke protocol or the protocol is broken (see below).
    Nurse #2: called the damned cdc saying she was running a slight fever… And the *CDC* cleared her to fly over the phone… Now they’re looking for like what 120-180 exposes on the plane with Christ only knows how many on the ground.

    So who do we blame?
    Obama? Maybe
    Politicians to be named later? We always do.
    The people who have spent their whole casters looking at diseases and can’t contain a care team? Umm yeah that’s probably a good call!

    I’m the end what does it all accomplish? We’re still talking about a disease less dangerous than a peanut or a 5 gallon bucket.

  7. I can’t deny your reasoning. We live in a society where it’s “me” first, everyone else…whenever. Thanks for bringing the sober truth to the forefront. I believe the Government knows much more that any of us have yet to hear…welcome to the new U.S. We all know this. Thanks so much for the informed message. Keep up the cause! Thank you!

  8. In fairness to the one that went on the cruise, she never actually had direct contact with the patient, and last I checked the most the hospital and CDC could say is that she may have handled some of the patient’s samples. They can’t even say for sure. It’s entirely possible that even she didn’t know she had. Plus, at the time she boarded the ship, she wasn’t on any of the CDC’s lists of people to monitor.

    These nurses have been trusting the CDC’s experts. It’s what they’re trained to do, and it’s reasonable – when you have no knowledge or experience with a subject, you listen to the people who have been studying it for years. They’ve just been lied to by people they had every reason to trust.

    1. The problem is there is to much trust in experts when all logic points to not tusting them.

      1. You have contact with someone who is confirmed to have Ebola.
      2. You google incubation time. It says “as long as 21 days”. This is not debated by experts.
      3. You ask an experts if you can fly on plane loads of people and it hasn’t been 21 days.

      Why do we trust these people when the fail the most basic of logical tests? Because feelings feel good? Sorry the real world doesn’t give a rip. If I come up with Ebola, I’m using Amazon to order a few months of food and paying all my bills in advance and containing myself. 70% of people die with Ebola outside of hospital. 70% of people die with Ebola inside a hospital. Which is the better choice?

      1. 1 is undisputed (though not for the one who went on the cruise), but there are two issues with your reasoning.

        2. Would you trust Google, or people who have spent years studying this particular disease?

        3. You’re exhibiting symptom X. The experts tell you that, even if you are infected, you’re not contagious unless you’re exhibiting symptoms X, Y, and Z. Are you contagious?

        I am not defending the one who flew back to Texas, only the one on the cruise. The one on the plane had direct contact with the confirmed Ebola patient, and should not have flown once she began feeling sick.

        OTOH, the one who flew brings us back to question #2 – do you trust Google, or the people who have spent years studying this disease? The average nurse, even one who has just recently treated a patient with the disease in question, is not going to have the knowledge base to second guess the expert, and (at the time this happened, at least) is not going to have any reason to believe the expert isn’t telling her the truth.

        1. Given the experts’ current record on this little monster… I’m going with Google (now)… But to be fair the health care workers didn’t know or have any reasonable reason to suspect that was the case when they were put in the position to choose.

          The real questions are: why are we playing catch-up ball on all this crap? Why didn’t we have a hard look and a solid plan at this thing when the first case arrived or before that? This isn’t a new desease, just a new place to find it.

  9. The government Ignoring the fact that we have open borders is ignoring federal law, which is, in effect, breaking federal law. A travel ban from west African countries should be a common sense response from our government. This is exactly what the. “General welfare” clause was speaking of in the constitution. This isn’t more government control. This is precisely one of the few delegated powers of the federal government. Everything else they do on a daily basis is an overreach. Yet, the obvious responsibilities, they ignore.

  10. I think it is a little more than simple “me first”. I bet the flight and the cruise were bought and payed for before they interacted with the Ebola virus. Not that it is not still a “me first” attitude, but it is a little easier to rationalize away safety concerns when you will be throwing away hundreds of dollars if you miss the trip.

  11. Caleb I completely agree that today’s American society is sick with the “me” bug, but I’m not so sure that it completely applies here.

    Patient #1 from Africa – oh yeah, he’s on the “me” team. But in retrospect, he left Africa (probably a good idea if you can) and came to America to family. When his sickness appeared, he went to the hospital, but nobody was even considering ebola and sent him home. His case falls squarely on the CDC and World Health Organization – they should have been much more aware of the threat and taken drastic measures to contain the victims in Africa!

    The nurses/workers? Yeah, they should have been more careful in traveling, but from what it appears the hospitals are WAY behind the ball on how to properly care for ebola and protect their employees. Not to mention, the one did check with CDC who said “naw, you’re fine, go ahead”.

    CDC still says wear a mask, apron, and some gloves – but you see the Africa treatment areas and it looks like their cleaning up Chernobyl! Again, I put that on the CDC. The CDC chief was still touting the lack of precautions on the Hill this week. They need to up the protective gear recommendations, and declare a quarantine on people from the infected countries in Africa.

    To do so correctly, it will take the President issuing orders to DHS/TSA/CBP/ICE to investigate incoming travelers much more thoroughly than before and preventing possible infected people from entering.

    So in that regard … Mr. President has dropped the ball.

  12. The moment to ban all but medical personnel travel from hot zone countries was the day the virus first booked a flight into Nigeria (June). Didn’t happen for the US.

    Nigeria, on the other hand, did ban flights and began aggressively contact-tracing everyone who might have had contact with the index case (Sawyer). They also quarantined. Nigeria may now be ebola-free once more.

    It’s hard to really blame The Flying Nurse. Her hospital’s protocols fell grossly short of what’s needed for this virus. The CDC told her it was OK to fly. The CDC provided and continues to provide fatally incorrect advice, as does the OSG. The HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (busy funneling money to Admin cronies, actually) is missing in action, as are NIH and FEMA.

    The “czar” appointment of a fixer lawyer should make it clear to all non-cretins that POTUS sees the crisis as a political opportunity to exploit, rather than what it is, which is a looming medical catastrophe. If this czar knows nothing about ebola, that means he knows more than the CDC Director. But his job is probably to control the flow of information (esp. news about incidents), and not the flow of virus particles.

    I suspect that cruise ship lab tech had non-refundable tickets. No one would cover his loss for staying home, so he went. The cruise ship lines might as well file Chapter 7 now, because bookings are going to evaporate, even if all the tech had was bad cheesecake.

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