Back in the fall of 2014, there were a few cases of
Ebola virus in people who came back from Liberia during the outbreak there. There was one death, Thomas Eric Duncan,
after a hospital in Dallas did not recognize that he could have Ebola soon
enough (which should have been knowable from his travel history). His fiancé, Troh, underwent substantial hardship
following from her own quarantine, which had to be 21 days.
Afterwards, some landlords would not rent to her, and
apparently all of her personal possessions in her original apartment had to be “incinerated”
as part of decontamination, according to this news story from an NBC affiliate
in DFW.
It is true that some news accounts attribute some of
this to racism, and that needs attention. But the main concern is the extreme
treatment given to her because of her exposure to a dangerous infectious disease,
in this case from a personal (romantic) relationship.
I bring up the story to highlight the need to be very
careful in our policies as to how persons into isolation or quarantine for
COVID will be handled.
I do recall reading that personal possessions were incinerated
in many cases of quarantine or isolation in China. I’m not sure of other countries.
We all know that individuals and families are having
major financial setbacks, even wipeout and bankruptcy, from the business
closures due to lockdowns.
However in some cases forced quarantine or isolation
could cause separation of the individual from their tools or assets that will
enable them to continue their lives after the isolation ends, particularly if
they are moved outside of their home and not allowed to bring things (contamination)
or if the contents of their home were somehow dangerous.
If we want to get back to work, we will have to force
people to have rapid tests much more often and have them available to
businesses (as on smart phones). Some
countries use smart phone tracking as a major part of effective contact tracing
and monitoring of quarantined individuals.
We will have to be extremely careful in telling people what to expect if
we start getting serious about continuous testing. You could destroy lives completely
and force people into the shame of begging.
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