Volunteers for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, receive training on how to handle personal protective equipment.
The United State's Ebola panic of 2014 is potentially claiming thousands of victims in Africa, the place where Ebola has to be stopped to prevent it becoming a much larger epidemic than it already is. Public health experts have warned that overreaction by politicians—the mandatory quarantines of healthcare volunteers returning home in particular—would be counter-productive and could stem the flow of much-needed volunteers to West Africa. That prediction is already
being proven, according to Doctors without Borders:
"There is rising anxiety and confusion among MSF staff members in the field over what they may face when they return home upon completion of their assignments in West Africa," Sophie Delaunay, executive director of Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement emailed to Reuters. Doctors Without Borders is also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF.
Some MSF workers are delaying their return home after their assignments and staying in Europe for 21 days, Ebola's maximum incubation period, "in order to avoid facing rising stigmatization at home and possible quarantine," Delaunay said in her statement.
"Some people are being discouraged by their families from returning to the field," she said.
This is why nurse
Kaci Hickox's fight against ridiculous and overblown quarantine rules, first by Gov. Chris Christie in New Jersey and then Gov. Paul LePage in Maine, is so important. The healthcare workers who volunteer to help fight Ebola are doing West Africa, and ultimately the globe, a huge service by working to contain the disease. They should not be turned into terrorists when they return home.
Rather than adding to the fear and confusion of American citizens about the disease—and doing the cheap and easy political thing by playing to it—governors should be using the opportunity and their bully pulpits to educate their constituents about the disease. And reminding them to get their flu shots, because that's what's going to be killing tens of thousands of Americans this winter.