NY Post – October 20, 2014
by Steve Cassidy
The Ebola outbreak has provoked serious national and global fears, as the World Health Organization advises that West African nations may be battling 10,000 new cases each week by Dec. 1. WHO says the outbreak is now doubling in size every three weeks and escalating to a potential global threat. Yes, the feds should commit all available and necessary resources to stop Ebola in West Africa. Even if America is the only nation willing to commit the resources, we must do it.
But the president needs to move to prevent panic over the potential spread of Ebola in America, too. So far, his team’s actions have only done the reverse.
As head of the New York City firefighters’ union, my duty is to guard my members’ health and safety.
When anyone dials 911 for medical help in New York City, an FDNY engine company, staffed by New York’s Bravest, is dispatched first.
Firefighters handle 500,000 emergencies a year. Half of these are fires or non-medical emergencies, where firefighters have no way of knowing if we’re interacting with an infected person.
And we arrive suited in firefighter protective gear, not medical isolation suits. That puts us at a higher risk of contracting the disease when we come into contact with an infected person.
Firefighters also know that when political higher-ups fail to do their jobs, the folks on the ground pay the price.
So far, in the case of Ebola, that’s been the two nurses who contracted the virus despite Centers for Disease Control chief Tom Friedan’s repeated claims that US hospitals could handle the infection.
Frieden finally admitted the obvious last week: “We have to rethink the way we address Ebola infection control, because even a single infection is unacceptable.”
But the CDC’s missteps so far are massive. It claimed to have an Ebola protocol in place, when it really didn’t.
Then Frieden effectively blamed a “protocol breach” when the first nurse got infected. All that leaves the medical and first-responder communities with very little confidence in Frieden and his team.
If trained nurses working in a Texas hospital, wearing what they’d been told was proper protective gear, can contract the virus, the implication is that the disease spreads more easily than the CDC led us to believe.
Every day, JFK Airport alone admits 100 to 150 travelers from Western Africa. The current procedure of screenings and questioning international travelers is insufficient as a precaution against a fatal and contagious disease with a 21-day incubation period.
Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Texas Ebola victim and fatality, didn’t show symptoms for about a week after his arrival in the United States.
Yet Frieden and President Obama have been adamant against any kind of travel ban — or even a mandatory quarantine period — for those who’ve visited West Africa, even though several other nations have done so.
Obama reiterated his opposition to a ban the day after he named his new “Ebola Czar,” Washington fixer Ron Klain. Some czar — he’s barely had time to find a desk, and his boss is putting one of the biggest policy options off-limits.
Naming a czar looked purely political in the first place; treating the czar as irrelevant on the biggest question on the table made the politics obvious. A cynic might start to think the president is still more focused on the midterm elections than on Ebola.
The president needs to send the clear message that he’s taking Ebola seriously. The common-sense way to do that is to institute strict travel restrictions for all non-medical personnel traveling from West Africa to the United States, while ensuring free travel (and quarantine on return) for medical volunteers.
Our leaders need to show they’ve finally got their act together to promote calm at home, while US-led medical professionals and humanitarian efforts work toward a cure for those already stricken.
Steve Cassidy is president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association of New York.
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