.
Props to the New Yorkers who understand how epidemic illness works:
Flu vaccinations are up 50 percent in New York City, according to the Health Department — though the city’s flu chief said it’s too soon to know whether the surge is the result of the vaccine being more widely available than ever before, or because of Ebola fears.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and other authorities have been saying a the flu shot is one of the best things people can do to fight Ebola — albeit indirectly. The vaccine does nothing to protect people from the deadly virus. But Dr. Jane Zucker, the city Health Department’s flu chief, said more people getting flu shots and nasal mist means fewer sick people diverting the esources of hospital emergency rooms…
Not so much for Bobby Jindal’s suffering state:
Louisiana has a message for many of the scientists and medical experts studying Ebola and aiding efforts to fight the deadly virus in West Africa — stay away.
The state sent a letter to members of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, which is holding its annual conference in New Orleans next week. If they’ve recently been to any of the West African countries where the virus has infected more than 13,000 people, they shouldn’t attend the meeting…
Louisiana’s decision was made to “address concerns regarding the possible importation of Ebola virus,” the state officials said in the letter. The state has instituted a policy that prohibits people who have traveled to West Africa or cared for people with virus in the past 21 days from using public transportation or joining large groups.
The state said it can’t effectively assess the risk of people who’ve been in the countries. “We see no utility in you traveling to New Orleans to simply be confined to your room,” the officials said in the letter…
Meanwhile, per NYMag, nurse Kaci Hickox defies the alarmists:
Quarantine-defying Ebola nurse Kaci Hickox, now home in Maine after escaping Chris Christie’s bluster in New Jersey, flaunted her freedom in the most Maine way possible this morning: by going on a bike ride. While health officials in the state are insisting she stay inside until November 10, when her 21-day incubation period ends, Hickox, who served with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone but has twice tested negative for the virus and shown no symptoms, keeps pushing the boundaries.
Last night, “Hickox made her point when she stepped outside the home,” the Associated Press reports. “After speaking to reporters, she shook a hand offered by one of the reporters.”…
Per CNN [warning: autoplay video], there’s at least one sensible judge in Maine:
A Maine judge on Friday ruled in favor of a nurse who defied a quarantine in a tense standoff with state authorities, saying local health officials failed to prove the need for a stricter order enforcing an Ebola quarantine.
District Court Chief Judge Charles LaVerdiere ordered nurse Kaci Hickox, who recently returned to the United States after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, to submit to “direct active monitoring,” coordinate travel with public health officials and immediately notify health authorities should symptoms appear…
I’m hoping Governors Christie (NJ) and LePage (Maine) get into a public shoving match at the next big GOP conclave. Preferably with Gov. Jindal trapped between them, for the lulz.
shelley
Good for her. But per the NYMag story. Since when is standing up for your rights seen as ‘flaunting?’
BGinCHI
I love how the GOP Govs are the first people to want to use the government to deny people their rights and freedoms.
How fucking surprising.
/including the GOP plant Cuomo
The Dangerman
If I heard correctly, the Nurse will be staying off planes and subways, which would appear to be a reasonable precaution (as if there are subways in Maine). Else, go forth and enjoy the bike rides.
Speaking of planes, I’m not sure of the wisdom of having anyone test piloting a vehicle so that people that can afford $250K a pop can get 4 minutes in space. As I’ve said before, rocket science isn’t THAT hard…
…but it’s staggeringly fucking expensive to do right (with adequate margins of safety, redundancies, etc.). Two failures in a week within the private sector is a bit of a concern that people are trying to accomplish things without thinking things through (i.e, using 40 year old Soviet rocket engines, really?).
JPL
@BGinCHI: Remember that ACA restricts your doctors and the government will decide your medical treatment. Of course, personhood doesn’t restrict ones choice of birth control.
Linnaeus
@The Dangerman:
You didn’t get the memo. The private sector does everything better. Always.
Tree With Water
Jindal’s decision puts me in mind of a dye carried pilots and crews in the WW2’s South Pacific. An anti-shark dye, to be precise, which airmen were told would repel sharks until rescue was effected. And it was utter bullshit.
The Dangerman
@Linnaeus:
If the goal is to do things on the cheap (i.e., 40 year old rocket motors, even if refurbished), the answer is, yes, the private sector does things better.
If the goal is to get things to the Space Station reliably…
Marc
Let’s all hope Paul LePage won’t be at the next GOP conclave, except possibly as an object lesson in the consequences of stupidity.
Iowa Old Lady
Jindal’s decision is just appalling. That conference is NEXT WEEK. It’s impossible to reschedule stuff like that.
BGinCHI
@Tree With Water: Was it spelled d-i-e?
Napoleon
I guess Anne Laurie is unaware that her 3rd linked article is now seriously out of date. You may want to check the NY Times.
Calouste
@The Dangerman:
Rocket science isn’t hard at all. It’s a couple of quadratic equations that have been known since Newton.
Rocket engineering on the other hand, is a bit more complicated.
JPL
Anne, You might want to click to Boston.com and read about Baker.
Blame the essence of how memories are formed — not Charlie Baker — for the mistaken details surrounding the Republican gubernatorial hopeful’s tearful story about a New Bedford fisherman during Tuesday’s debate.
IOKIYR
feebog
I read the Judge’s ruling in the Maine quarantine case. He came just short of calling LaPage a moron. Good times.
Linnaeus
@The Dangerman:
Fast, cheap, or good. You can have two of three.
BGinCHI
@Linnaeus: In cycling it’s “Cheap, light, strong.”
geg6
OT, but I just want to pay tribute to my darling Otis, the best and sweetest golden retriever who ever lived. He went over the rainbow bridge today and my household is in deep, deep mourning. I loved him dearly. He was so loveable and soft and beautiful. There is a huge hole in my heart.
Howard Beale IV
Jindhal is another one of those eejets who manages to keep on failing upward, and he’s another one to add to the ‘render no aid’ to list. It won’t be long before LA won’t be habitable due to Deepwater Horizon anyway.
The Dangerman
@Calouste:
I heard on one of the reports that VG recently changed fuels and this was the first flight with the new stuff; I’d be fascinated to learn what testing was done after the swap.
Howard Beale IV
@geg6: My condolences.
Major Major Major Major
@The Dangerman: I for one am excited for the Orion test.
I read (somewhere) an interview with one of the kids who had a science experiment on board the rocket that blew up and they asked him if he was disappointed and he said something like “kind of, but how often do you get to watch a rocket explode??”
Gin & Tonic
@geg6: Very sorry to hear. We had to put our buddy down now approaching three months ago, and still look for him to come trotting into the kitchen when the fridge is opened.
Amir Khalid
@geg6:
The passing of a beloved non-human family member is never off-topic around these parts. {{{hugs}}}
Rosalita
@geg6: Hugs to you! I am so sorry.
Iowa Old Lady
@geg6: I’m sorry. Otis sounds like a wonderful dog.
JPL
@geg6: I’m so sorry for your loss. You shared stories about Otis so I feel like I knew him. How’s your other dog taking it? When I had two dogs, it took a few days before the mourning set in.
Amir Khalid
Does Governor Harkonnen still maintain that everyone else in America will soon come around and implement his medically unjustified Ebola quarantine?
Major Major Major Major
@geg6: Oh no! :( So sorry to hear that.
Elie
@geg6:
My sincere condolences. I send you a warm hug….
geg6
Thanks all. He really was the best dog. He was a rescue and, I think because of it, he was the best behaved dog I ever knew, with a super sweet disposition, great loyalty and a big heart. Never had to leash him because he never left our sides. Ever. Not for anything. Just the best. John and I will miss him horribly.
RobertDSC-iPhone 4
@geg6: RIP, Otis.
beth
@geg6: So sorry to hear your sad news. My sweet girl will get an extra treat tonite in Otis’ honor.
Chat Noir
@geg6: I am so sorry for your loss. I can relate as I lost my beloved cats, Natalie and Sherman, three months apart earlier this year. I had them for 15 years. They were very special to me as I am sure Otis was to you. Please know there are lots of people who understand what you’re going through during this very sad time.
beth
Bill Gates is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at that conference. I hope he delivers a little scolding to Governor Idiot while he’s at it.
NotMax
Per Mr. Cole’s post below, the Republican ‘bench’ for 2016 does seem to be stocked with politicians all beyond their sell-by dates.
Matt McIrvin
@The Dangerman: Here’s an article about the history of the SpaceShipOne/SpaceShipTwo program from yesterday, suggesting that there are deep problems with the whole project that the race for the X Prize both obscured and abetted:
http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/10/30/apollo-ansari-hobbling-effects-giant-leaps/
geg6
@JPL:
Koda knows something is wrong but can’t quite put her finger on it. Dinner time will make it clear because Otis’ rear legs were so bad, he couldn’t eat properly so I would hold his bowl for him. After he was done eating, I’d sit with Koda while she ate. So that routine will be upended. She’s also being uncharacteristically quiet and cuddly for the time of day.
Svensker
@geg6:
So sorry to hear that. Big hugs to you.
Tree With Water
@BGinCHI: Well, how superior of you to deign point that out to me.
Suzanne
@geg6: Hugs and best wishes for you and your family. Losing a furry family member is one of the hardest things. I hope you find some comfort soon.
The Dangerman
@Matt McIrvin:
Interesting and prescient read.
I went to a meeting with Rutan about a decade ago, not too long after SS1; a great engineer, but it’s different skill set for a one off article as compared to something that scales to something commercially viable.
ETA: Condolences on the dog loss.
BGinCHI
@Tree With Water: No extra charge.
Emma
@geg6: I am so sorry. We lost first our cat then our potbellied pig this year. Both times it was devastating for all of us. I still hate to walk out to the porch because I won’t hear the porky snorting that translated to “where’s my banana?” And I miss waking up with a cat draped around my middle, or having an impatient paw swipe across the Kindle screen and change the page.
The memories is what we have left and they are almost enough.
Mnemosyne
@BGinCHI:
FWIW, I appreciated the joke, but I like homophone puns.
Mnemosyne
@geg6:
Ugh. It’s hard even when you know it’s coming. Best to you, John and Koda.
the Conster
@geg6:
Ugh!! So terribly sorry. Sincerest condolences, and that’s really all that can be said.
BGinCHI
@Mnemosyne: Some people are just homophonic.
WereBear
@geg6: I’m so sorry. All your stories about him were so sweet.
skerry
@geg6: I’m so sorry for your loss. (hugs)
d58826
AP had a brief clip that the 83 people in Spain who were being monitored (not sure if it was full quarantine) after the Spanish nurse tested positive, have all been released. No one got sick.
Howard Beale IV
TPM: Oh, dear, how could this happen? Greg Abbot shaking hands with a convicted felon who had a cache of arms an ammonium nitrate in his hotel room. Yep- a milita maniac.
d58826
@Howard Beale IV: BUT BUT he is good Murkin!
GregB
I am really looking forward to Governor Christie coming up to New Hampshire for his next yelling tour.
redshirt
I like this nurse. A lot.
PurpleGirl
@geg6: {{{HUGS}}} Sorry to hear that.
IdahoFlaneuse
@geg6: I am so sorry for your loss. They leave such a large hole in our lives.
Davis X. Machina
@d58826:You know what that means — “Damn n*gg*rs can’t even do a plague right.”
Mnemosyne
@d58826:
I think the extreme lack of people catching Ebola in the US so far is going to go a long way towards dampening the public hysteria. It’s pretty obvious now to all but the dimmest that it’s not an easy disease to catch unless you’re working directly with a patient in the end stage of the disease.
Josie
@geg6: So sorry to hear of your loss. Extra hugs to you and yours.
NCSteve
@Mnemosyne: I take you haven’t been to any story about this on a site that uses Disqus or the like.
mainmati
@Amir Khalid: Gov. Harkonnen…that’s a very nice touch. Bagus!
Mnemosyne
@NCSteve:
Nope, just talking to people IRL. Even the local morning deejays were like, Huh, this Ebola stuff seems pretty hard to catch the other morning.
But I’m also in solidly blue Southern California, which probably helps.
Anne Laurie
@geg6: My condolences, to you & your family, including Koda.
As Joe Biden says, May the day soon come when the memories bring a smile to your lips before they bring a tear to your eyes!
boatboy_srq
@Mnemosyne: Sunny SoCal may be blasé about the whole thing, but NoVA is near-to-freaking. I’m tempted to tell my Teahadist acquaintances that the ebola virus can survive for weeks on untreated ballot stock, just to see how valuable the franchise really is to them.
@geg6: [[hug]] My buddy Harlequin passed about two years ago. Quite the character for a rescue: everyone’s friend (he was always ready to adopt a new human), but a terror to
work forlive with until he’d been properlyattended as Set’s high priest should befed, cuddled and entertained with a laser pointer.boatboy_srq
Can we officially declare Louisiana off-limits for conventions, tourism, and any and all Blue dollars? Because if they’re that skeered of EEEEEEBOLAA!!!11!1!™ then perhaps the epidemic’s already there and we wouldn’t want to catch it.
Mnemosyne
@boatboy_srq:
There was definitely a freakout a few weeks ago, but it seems to be dying down now that virtually no one in the US has been infected.
Steeplejack
@geg6:
So sorry for your loss.
Jay C
@geg6:
So typical a eulogy for Goldens: a testament so very well-deserved: condolences…..
Elie
@redshirt:
Kaci’s CRED:
I proudly tout this warrior for science and rationality. She aint jes any nurse — she is SUPER NURSE! :-).
Matt McIrvin
You know, I don’t think anyone I personally know in Massachusetts was ever in any kind of panic over Ebola. There was some concerned discussion of it, sure, but the panic always seemed to be something happening somewhere else. Maybe it’s the particular circles I’m in.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@geg6: Very late to the thread but I’m sorry for your loss. They leave such big paw prints on our hearts.
SWMBO
@geg6: We currently have three 9 month old pups and one 5 year old. All rescues. We had Gromit cross the bridge in December and when it finally sunk in on Pixie, she went on a destructive tear. We have CPAP machines and she destroyed 2 masks in 3 days. She chewed up more stuff and was unhousebroken for weeks. When we got the three pups (brothers from the same litter), she immediately stopped. I think she just needed a buddy (or three) to keep her company. She loves the pups and has put up with a lot of obnoxious puppy behavior. She has stopped chewing and destroying things and seems to have gotten over her grief.
I am sorry for your loss and when it hits her completely, Koda may grieve more than you realize.
Another Holocene Human
@JPL: Damn, Hilary Clinton needs press handmaidens like these. //
That’s snark. Being a grown person, a responsible person means learning not to repeat shit you’re not sure about.
Obama doesn’t have gaffes like these. I wonder why. (Actually, I don’t–it’s called be honest and being prepared. Too much to ask of our ‘betters’.)
Another Holocene Human
@Amir Khalid:
I think the whole world got the message never to land in Newark airport at any time for any reason loud and clear.
Good news for Delta Airlines *wink*.
Another Holocene Human
@Matt McIrvin: But but but I, for one, welcomed our billionaire tech baron overlords!
Another Holocene Human
@Matt McIrvin:
Boston is an enormous center for biotech and medical research as well as having a whole city district that is nothing but hospitals including teaching hospitals, plus the whole state is littered with colleges and universities and top medical schools plus the highest per capita educational attainment rates in the country so … yeah. Oh, and the governor is not Cuomo, LePage, Jindal so the numbnuts don’t have an authority figure inviting them to set their hair on fire.
tam1Mi
So, who wants to start the petition at change.org to give Kaci Hickox the Presidential Medal of Freedom?