Quarantine and Chicken Little

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recently revamped its guidelines for doctors and nurses returning home to the US from treating Ebola patients in West Africa and it does not recommend quarantine like the one being imposed by some US states. CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden calls for the isolation of people at the highest risk of Ebola infection but said most medical workers returning from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea would only require daily monitoring but not quarantine.

CDC guidelines released to state health departments call for those who have had direct exposure to the Ebola virus, such as through a needle stick or caring for an Ebola patient without protective gear, to stay off public transportation and avoid “congregate settings” such as offices. Those individuals would also be banned from flying and would undergo “direct active monitoring” by a public health worker who would check their temperatures twice daily and discuss possible symptoms.

That is the sober recommendation of one of the leading disease control centers in the planet.

Meanwhile, the Philippines, which has a less robust healthcare and Ebola-defense system than the US, has decided to put its troops who had served in Ebola-ravaged Liberia for 21 days on a quarantine island. This is supposed to ensure that our country remains Ebola-free and considering the skepticism of the Filipino public on our government’s ability to deal with the disease if it does hit our shores, it does seem like a reasonable thing to ask from our troops.

So we have 100 or so Filipino peacekeepers double quarantined in an island because they have already been quarantined in Liberia when they were ordered to restrict their movements between barracks and offices. Aside from that, because they are not health care workers, their assignment in Liberia didn’t have them near any Ebola patients. They are peacekeepers and because their duties involve no contact with any Ebola patients, that makes them no different from any other Tom, Dick or Harry currently in the country who has been to West Africa in the past few months. The message is very clear: we are playing it safe, above and beyond international standards for dealing with people from West Africa because we want to keep our country Ebola free.

But then the unthinkable happened. Armed forces chief Gen. Gregorio Catapang and Acting Health Secretary Janette Garin visited the troops without any protective gear. They did it to show the armed forces the soldiers are safe and to assure their countrymen that there is nothing to worry about but they got into a heap of trouble because the paranoid and noisy fear mongerers started making a lot of noise.

The inane comments and the gnashing of teeth from the know-it-alls of social media were expected and understandable but the disappointing thing here is that many of those who joined the fear factory in an attempt to gain media mileage or grab a few seconds of fame, are supposedly intelligent and informed people who are supposed to be the calming voices of reason.

A Dr. Leachon, leader of the country’s 9,000 plus internal medicine specialists, got into the act by screaming the officials breached protocol. A handful of senators immediately joined the frenzy and opened their irrepressible mouths to add to the fear mongering. The Philippine media, who couldn’t resist the lure of a juicy E-word headline, added fuel to the fire by talking about it without giving too much background on why Catapang and Garin felt it was safe and without almost any mention that the Caballo Island quarantine is already overkill in the first place.

I wonder if the fear mongerers are aware the CDC of the United States recommends that a full quarantine in not necessary for health workers who have been in direct contact with Ebola patients. If they are not, then it is a scary prospect because they aren’t just anonymous netizens who can behave like Chicken Little if they want to, but they are leaders who are supposed to be educated and rational and not be among the first to scream that the sky is falling. These people are supposed to think before they open their mouths, especially if they could cause unnecessary fear and panic.

If you come to think of it, the Filipino peacekeepers from Liberia aren’t any different from anybody who has come from West Africa in recent months so if we are truly serious about keeping our country safe from Ebola then why aren’t we sending everybody entering the country coming from that part of the world to Caballo Island?

Let me make it clear that I support the quarantine overkill for our peacekeepers, because, although it may be too much, it helps makes Filipinos feel safer from Ebola. That was the real purpose of the exercise and that was the assurance Gen. Catapang and Acting Sec. Garin were trying to project when they went there without protective gear. Unfortunately for them, ignorant fear mongerers hijacked their publicity stunt and twisted the message to suit their own selfish need for more publicity.

So instead of being assured, we now feel threatened. All because we listen more to the Chicken Little instead of checking the facts and the opinions of experts.*

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