A bridge too far?

Mika and Joe today first reported the SNL skit lampooning disobedient medicos and then criticized as over the top the move by the governors of New York and New Jersey to make quarantine mandatory for care givers returning to the US from Africa.

First, let’s be clear about this.

The universal recommendation of all health authorities is that people who have had close contact with Ebola patients, including care givers, be isolated from others for at least 21 days.

Even Tom Frieden, head of the CDC, has said that these folks must self-isolate, call in twice a day with their temperatures, etc., and that if they are found to violate the policy they will then be put into mandatory quarantine.

This official policy is an honor system that has already failed, and we have found by repeated, annoying experience that care-givers cannot be trusted to observe the rules.

Repeatedly, medical personnel who have later turned out to be infected have gone off the reservation, costing authorities, air lines, and a variety of businesses a great deal of money in decontamination expenses and lost business and scaring the heck out of large numbers of people.

So far we have been lucky and no one has been infected by these hot shots.

The governors of New York and New Jersey have had enough, and have imposed mandatory quarantine on medical personnel returning from Ebola country because, as Chris Christie said, the honor system has not worked.

The argument repeatedly made by medicos that this will discourage volunteers presumes it to be generally true that these people are abundantly willing to risk their lives to help Africans cope with Ebola but not at all willing to observe the rules their own profession insists upon to keep Americans safe from that disease.

And, besides, to impose quarantine is, according to them and their adorers, treating them with a disrespect that is particularly outrageous since they are, according to themselves and their partisans, heroes who, as Mayor Bill De Blasio said, “did the right thing.”

But they are, in fact, self-infatuated spoiled brats, and De Blasio is the kind of Democrat who makes me ashamed of the party, encouraging them in their moral arrogance.

They need to be taken down a peg or two.

And the American people apparently need to be protected from these” heroes.”

On the other hand, an unheated tent on the grass?

Isolated nurse to challenge legality of quarantine

Notice that its opponents are now calling it "forced quarantine."

Look it up.

"Voluntary quarantine" is an oxymoron.

"Forced quarantine" is a pleonasm.

Update.

Christie backed down totally.

The whiny nurse is being released and the policy of quarantine of returning care givers has been abandoned in favor of the very honor system Christie correctly said does not work.

So far, the rebellion against quarantine has been successful whenever seriously pursued.

It remains true that the honor system doesn't work, but I suppose snotty medicos demanding their way will be allowed to continue to cheat until they actually kill a few people.

God forbid concern to protect Americans should in any way discourage these heroes from flying off to save Africans.