Should all individuals who have been exposed to Ebola virus patients or traveled to the Ebola outbreak zone in West Africa be quarantined? If you family was possibly exposed to Ebola via contact with a patient, would you have enough food and supplies in your home right now to survive?
Ebola travel restrictions with the exception of sanctioned medical aid to West Africa are not necessary according to the CDC and the Obama administration, but not everyone agrees with that stance on protocols related to the deadly virus.
Dr. Joe Alton, aka Dr. Bones, is an M.D. and fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American College of OB/GYN, is among the dissenters when it comes to Ebola travel restrictions. Dr. Alton is also a member of Mensa and collects 19th century medical books to gain insight on off-grid medical strategies.
His wife, Amy Alton, A.R.N.P., aka Nurse Amy, is an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner. Together, they’re the authors of the number one Amazon bestseller in Survival Skills and Safety/First Aid The Survival Medicine Handbook, highly-regarded keynote speakers, podcast hosts, and YouTube channel presenters, as well as contributors to leading survival and homesteading magazines.
“I think the main issue delaying an Ebola travel restrictions mandate revolves around the CDC head and other medical advisers acting more like politicians than health experts. What they should be doing is behaving strictly as health officials concerned with public safety for the people in our country,” Dr. Bones told Survival Based when asked about the matter.
Dr. Bones also had this to say about Ebola travel restrictions:
“This argument that somehow restriction of air travel from the Ebola zone and active transport to Ebola zone are somehow mutually exclusive. That is clearly a flawed argument and based on a political reality rather than actual medical realities. The Obama administration, the federal government is unwilling to do what is necessary to protect the public, for what I think is political reasons. It is a very hard thing, to wage the battle that always occurs between individual freedoms and public safety when faced with an emergency scenario. I think some politicians are concerned about being accused of profiling on an ethnic basis and political correctness when it comes to restricting air travel from Africa.
President Obama and current top health officials are simply unwilling to understand or unwilling to take the steps they feel would put them in a bad light with their main support base. It is time for health officials to stop being politicians. Anyone who rises to the top spot in any government agency has to have some politician in them, I believe that from the bottom of my heart. But, to protect us, they have to restrict travel from areas where contagious diseases are raging.”
Ebola nurse Kaci Hickox threatened to file a Civil Rights lawsuit over the mandatory quarantine imposed after she landed at a New Jersey airport. After not showing any Ebola virus symptoms for 24-hours, she was released to be transported via a private charter flight back to her native state of Maine.
While Governor Chris Christie has been unwavering in his decision to impose a mandatory Ebola quarantine for specific individuals flying back from the outbreak zone in West Africa, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is backpeddling on such restrictions in his state.
Kaci Hickox’s attorney Norman Siegel claimed the Ebola quarantine raised “serious constitutional and civil liberties issues” during an interview with Reuters on Sunday. Siegel is a well-known civil rights attorney. “We’re not going to dispute that the government has, under certain circumstances, the right to issue a quarantine. The policy is overly broad when applied to her,” Norman Siegel stated.
The Ebola nurse who had been in West Africa working closely with patients inflicted with the deadly virus wrote a letter detailing what she described as the poor treatment she received after arriving at Newark Liberty Airport on Friday. Hickox said that she is “scared” for other Ebola medial workers who will arrive back in the United States in the near future. In the open letter for the Dallas Morning News the nurse said, “ [A man] who must have been an immigration officer because he was wearing a weapon belt that I could see protruding from his white coveralls barked questions at me as if I was a criminal.”
The essay from the Ebola nurse also explained how she felt and what she allegedly experienced during the New Jersey airport screening:
“I called my family to let them know that I was OK. I was hungry and thirsty and asked for something to eat and drink. I was given a granola bar and some water. I wondered what I had done wrong. Four hours after I landed at the airport, an official approached me with a forehead scanner. My cheeks were flushed, I was upset at being held with no explanation. The scanner recorded my temperature as 101.”
U.S. Army troops are under an Ebola quarantine in Italy. Army Major General Darryl A. Williams, commander of U.S. Army Africa forces, along with 10 other personnel, are now under “controlled monitoring” after returning from West Africa over the weekend.
Although the Army troops are essentially under and Ebola quarantine, officials at the Pentagon have opted against using that exact terminology. CNN is reporting that Army Major General Williams plan was met by Italian officials upon landing.
The Italian authorities were reportedly decked out in “full CDC gear.” Although none of the Army troops have reportedly shown any Ebola virus symptoms, they will be quarantined for 21 days in a “separate location” at the American military installation in Vicenza. Although Pentagon officials currently prefer the term “controlled monitoring” the Army troops are reportedly being housed in an “access controlled” space on the base and will not be permitted to return home for the full 21-day period.
The troops will have their temperatures monitored twice daily. It remains unclear if the U.S. Army troops that just returned from West Africa will be allowed to receive visits from friends and family. Pentagon officials “could not explain” why the major general and his group were being placed in a “controlled monitoring” situation when such protocols differ from current department policy, according to CNN.
The Department of Defense Ebola virus policy says “as long as individuals remain asymptomatic, they may return to work and routine daily activities with family members.” Fox News is reporting that on its own, the Department of the Army issued the guidelines ordering the troops into a 21-day isolation. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is reportedly considering to accept the Joint Chiefs recommendation to impose the Ebola quarantine policy across the military. Army Major General Darryl Williams and his team were in the Ebola outbreak zone in West Africa for 30 days. The group was tasked with establishing the initial round of United States military assistance in the region.
Major General Williams’ team reportedly traveled “extensively” around Liberia and spent time in both Ebola treatment and testing areas during their time on the ground.
The Army official had this to say several weeks ago while still in the Ebola outbreak zone:
“We measure, while we’re here, twice a day, are monitoring as required by the recent guidance that was put out while we’re in Liberia. Yesterday I had my temperature taken, I think, eight times, before I got on and off an aircraft, before I went in and out of the embassy, before I went out of my place where I’m staying. As long as you exercise basic sanitation and cleanliness sort of protocols using the chlorine wash on your hands and your feet, get your temperature taken, limiting the exposure, no handshaking, those sorts of protocols, I think the risk is relatively low.”
What do you think about Ebola travel restrictions and quarantines?