Infectious diseases – Ebola, AIDS, even the Flu – are always
worrisome.
My background includes covering the early days of AIDS, back in
the 1983, when it was breaking out across New York City, as a young reporter
that summer for United Press International.
Few understood the disease. Was it limited to the gay community? Was it only happening to people who had
blood transfusions? No one knew.
In an attempt to dampen public fear of donating blood, New York
City Mayor Ed Koch, in a very public piece of showmanship, donated blood,
showing that if he could survive the process, so could anyone else.
I interviewed the executive director of New York’s Blood Bank about
whether donations were the same or down due to this new fangled disease.
“I’m getting a lot of interesting phone calls,” he said.
“Really. What kind
of calls,” I asked.
“I’m not really sure I should say. I’m a pretty modest guy,” he said.
“I am, too, so you can tell me,” I said.
“Well, this one lady said she and her husband practice anal and
oral sex, and she wanted to know if they were at risk of getting AIDS,” he
said.
“What did you tell her,” I asked.
“As long as the
sexual activity was only between them, they were fine,” he said.
Needless to say, that didn’t make it out across the wire that
day.
But the story about the guy who walked into a bank one Saturday
morning, holding it up by saying he had AIDS, did. The teller was so petrified of the disease, she handed him
every dollar she could find.
Given how we live in the United States, it's highly unlikely
anyone would come near Ebola. While we're prone to shaking hands, we tend
to keep our physical contact with others to a minimum.
That's not so much the case in West Africa, where, from what I
read, locals hug the dead, even those who died of Ebola, which then puts the
living at risk of coming down with the disease.
And, unlike the Flu, Ebola isn’t an airborne disease.
The larger issue we’re facing in the United States is the example
a nurse or doctor provides – especially to the rest of us who aren’t medical
workers – when they refuse to be quarantined because they may have been exposed
to Ebola.
Yes, medical workers have rights. But they also have an
obligation. And that's to demonstrate concern for a community's overall
health.
So, yes, nurses and doctors, who've done a fantastic service in
Africa, should be quarantined. I don't know if it needs to be for 21
days, but they should show the same amount of concern for their fellow
Americans' health as they have for those in Africa.
A nurse I know, who works at a local hospital, tells disturbing stories
but what's really bothersome are the ones of her fellow healthcare
workers.
They have no qualms about eating fat-laden, cholesterol-rich foods,
like cheeseburgers. Seriously, why aren’t these people taking the advice
their industry hands out – to work out and be careful what they eat?
Medical workers, I’m beginning to believe, are just like
journalists – they’re arrogant!
The rules don’t apply to them.
So if I were advising Kaci Hickox, the nurse in Maine upset
about being quarantined, I’d tell her to tone down her cries about her civil
rights and, instead, increase her time being an example of someone concerned
not only about her health but also that of her fellow citizens.
But maybe in this age of one person’s rights superseding everyone
else's, that's too much to expect, even from those who should know better.
