Representative Chris Coons, Democrat-Delaware, makes some good points. He also makes some seriously dumb ones. I wonder whether his opinion would change if some of these people coming from Ebola areas ended up in Delaware?
Those who help Ebola patients should be honored, not punished
The best way to protect Americans from Ebola is by stopping the virus at its source.
That’s why President Obama has committed up to 4,000 U.S. military engineers, logistics specialists and public health trainers and $1 billion in funding to help eradicate the virus in West Africa. That’s why philanthropist Paul Allen pledged $100 million in support last week and why Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, visited the affected countries this week.
Interestingly, the military members sent involuntarily to West Africa will be quarantined. Strange. Furthermore, if we want to stop it at its source, then we need to keep it at its source, not allow it to roam around the streets of the U.S.
We cannot protect Americans at home without sending Americans to Liberia, Guinea or Sierra Leone. Instead of demonizing those who volunteer for service, through stigmatizing mandatory quarantines or the imposition of a travel ban, we should be honoring them.
I see what you did there. Using a time honored system of keeping people who are potential disease carriers (the current outbreak of Ebola has roughly a 60% mortality rate) away from other people to limit the potential spread is “demonizing”. Let’s not forget that they volunteered to go to those countries, unlike our military members. And, they should be celebrated for taking the chance and putting themselves in harms way To Help. Seriously. Kudos. That doesn’t mean they should be allowed to wander around until the threat has passed.
Interestingly, the same Democrats tend to treat our military members as uneducated hillbillies and scumbags.
There’s a simple way to do that: The president should guarantee that all U.S. citizens who travel to West Africa to help fight Ebola will be allowed to return to the United States, that any medical care they need as a result of their trip will be provided free of charge and that wages lost to any government-imposed quarantine will be reimbursed. That’s the least we can do for the volunteers, missionaries and military personnel working to end this outbreak.
On one hand, they volunteered. This should be on them. On the other hand, I’m OK with it. But, um, why should we need to reimburse them if they are quarantined, because Coons had previously argued against quarantine?
But some of our political leaders have been sending the opposite message. The measures imposed by officials in New York and New Jersey last weekend — although later softened — sent a dangerous, punitive message to these dedicated people. Forced quarantines and the barring of people without Ebola symptoms are tactics not backed by science.
Wait, didn’t he just argue that people should be reimbursed after being quarantined?
I’m not sure about honoring these people, but they should be respected. And they should respect the citizens of the U.S. by being quarantined till the threat of contagion passes.
It cost an average of $500,000 for each Ebola patient. So, yea, I don’t feel especially good about these people coming here when that money could go to the people already here that need it. As to returning citizens, they need to arrange the financing for a potential illness before leaving. I don’t feel personally responsible for them putting themselves in harms way for the little benefit that there actions may have. Then there is the fact that an ill individual has the potential to infect others in our country. That is wrong.