Ebola Crisis: Forget Africa, Let's Quarantine All of Texas Instead



Should Texas be Quarantined?
Crises bring out the noblest in human character and the most weasly.  Africa is a continent so huge that it could hold the United States, China and Europe within its boundaries.  Only three sparsely populated countries -- Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea -- are struggling with the Ebola epidemic.  And yet we have conservative commentators rabble rousing the public to quarantine the entire continent of Africa.   This is not leadership in the face of a crisis. It is pitchforking.

The only way to stop the epidemic is to send as much assistance and as many health workers as possible to the affected countries to end the epidemic there, now. It can be done.  It should have been done months ago. And it cannot be done at all if the continent, or even those countries are quarantined, making it impossible for the desperately needed supplies to reach their destinations.

Instead, the GOP has decided that this is a glorious opportunity to denounce President Obama. Those with nothing of value to offer have been handed shouting points about imposing a quarantine on Africa that rather than stopping the virus, would increase its growth exponentially.  So, I have a better idea.

Americans did not care about Ebola until a Texas hospital racially profiled the African who arrived at its ER with all the symptoms and yet still sent him home with a temperature of 103.  Texas's governor with the rip-roaring support of conservatives in the state refused the federal Medicaid expansion package, which would have relieved the burden on hospitals for dealing with patients such as this one, who didn't have insurance.  Now one of the hospital's staff has come down with the disease, and public health officials have to quickly see who else may have been infected by this person. With all the screw-ups, who knows who else might have it because of the hospital's mistakes.

So, why don't we just quarantine Texas?  Let's close the borders, stop all traffic, including automobiles, trucks, planes and commerce.  Let's station the National Guard at the borders and make sure no one enters or leaves the state until all the problems caused by what claimed to be a world class hospital are fixed.

I imagine that those Texans calling for quarantining Africa might wish to come after me with a pitchfork. I'm just curious. Does the thought of quarantining Texas rather than Africa make some of you a bit queasy, like. . . oh my goodness. . . our economy as wealthy as it is could collapse. . . everything would come to a standstill.  What a preposterous idea, some might even say.  But then again, there are many in this state calling for secession or stationing the military on the border anyway. 



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