There’s no question that Ebola is a terrifying disease with a survival rate of about 50%. It is our equivalent of the Black Plague that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages, but the administration’s move to refuse to treat American citizens who may have been exposed to the virus at state of the art hospitals in the U.S. is beyond the pale. No, we’re going to abandon them and send them to Kenya.
Kenya, however, has nixed any plan to open an Ebola quarantine center there. It is an independent country, not a colony of the U.S. There are no Ebola cases in Kenya and its government intends to keep it that way. In the 2014 outbreak, exposed American citizens were flown here and treated at Emory University Hospital. No one died.
The refusal to “take care of our own,” as Dr. Craig Spencer, who was treated at Bellevue, put it, is a new step for us here. What is the matter with us when Rubio says no Ebola exposed person would be allowed in for medical treatment? Why don’t we just take our citizens and dump them in the ocean and let them drown? Disgusting is too polite a word for such an attitude.
Prayer for the Day
Forgive us, O God, for our fears overcome us,
Refusing to even care for our own citizens;
Hold us to the test of what we claim to be,
A Nation that does not abandon its own.
You know, O Lord, our fears and terror of death,
But as you are our strength, create in us clean hearts.
In the name of the One who accompanies us in our fear,
Even Christ Jesu our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
The one that I was infected with, the Zaire strain, seems to have the highest mortality, but they all produce pretty similar symptoms of fatigue [that] ultimately leads to vomiting, diarrhea, incredible weakness and weight loss.
Dr. Craig Spencer, after his treatment at Bellevue October 2014.
Foreign Service employees are there because the U.S. government sent them. They are entitled to the same standard of care that has always applied, including the right to come home.
Statement by American Foreign Service Association
When the earth totters, with all its inhabitants, it is I who keeps its pillars steady.
Psalm 75: 3