Ohio, Texas schools close amid Ebola scare

[marions ghost]

Source: USA Today

Three Central Texas schools were closed Thursday over health concerns surrounding two students who traveled on a Monday flight with Vinson.

Belton Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Susan Kincannon said in a statement sent to parents Wednesday that the district did not know if health risks to passengers aboard the Frontier Airlines flight included the students.

----------
In North Texas, the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District said late Wednesday a family member of a Lake Pointe Elementary School student was also aboard the same flight as Vinson and the family would be quarantined for 21 days.

Late Wednesday, a Cleveland-area high school was thoroughly cleaned and a teacher of freshmen was ordered to stay at home after it was learned the teacher may have come in contact with an Ebola-infected person. It was not clear whether the person was Vinson.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/16/solon-ohio-ebola-school-closings/17343431/

---

Tallmadge police cordon off a home in Tallmadge, Ohio on Oct. 15, where Ebola-infected nurse Amber Joy Vinson stayed over the weekend before flying home to Dallas.

[FLPanhandle]

2. If the school districts used common sense, this could have been avoided

Talk about an over reaction.

[christx30]

6. I think with all the missteps and mistakes

there has been a lot of underreaction. Worst thing that could come from this move is to have to make up a couple of days in the summer. Go the other way, you have sick or dead kids and teachers. Until we know for sure that no one on that flight was infected, it's best to err on the side of caution.

[hamsterjill]

29. Absolutely!!! Better safe than sorry.

As a lifelong Texan, it's time they do something RIGHT. If it's overkill, then it's overkill. I don't care.

[kentauros]

53. I agree.

Yet, it appears, at least on DU, that erring on the side of caution makes one hysterical, anti-science, and any other insult of hyperbole possible. "I'm a DU member and I'm a scientist! You can trust me! Ignore the fact that I don't have a degree in microbiology and/or virology. I'm a scientist! And you're over-reacting!!1!"

Nothing wrong with being cautious. And it doesn't matter if the chance of getting infected is statistically impossible. It's "hitting the lottery" with that one-in-a-billion chance that makes one disinterested in the fact that it was a minuscule chance of getting it. Why take the risk over something that is outside of our direct control as individuals? (That's to shoot down the idea that you have a greater chance of being killed on the way home from work than getting infected by ebola, due to driving being in your direct control.)

[hamsterjill]

54. Yes, the egos on DU come out sometimes.

Dare someone disagree with a certain element of posters and that person will get slammed. Oh, well...

There is NOTHING wrong with being cautious. Nothing wrong with making sure, double sure and triple sure. That's how this situation will be brought under control.

[kestrel91316]

36. You have a point. My first reaction was "what a bunch of neurotic nuts".

[christx30]

44. Look at it like the things we want to do to fight global warming.

If we're freaking out over nothing, switching from fossil fuels to sustaniable energy will save us money (in the short term), or maybe a minor job loss.
If global warming is an actual thing and we do nothing, it's the end of human life as we know it.

[RKP5637]

51. I agree with you so much. At this stage IMO much is still being learned about the potential spread

of Ebola, necessary precautions, readiness and treatment. To me, it's better to be overly cautious, not panicky, but overly cautious.

[AwakeAtLast]

8. Parents would have kept their children at home if the schools had not been closed.

Trust me, parents keep their children home for many different reasons - justified or not.

Bomb scares posted on Facebook, threats posted on Instagram, measles outbreaks - those are just a few I've seen in the past year.

[karynnj]

3. Agreed, but the Texas school are clearly reacting to fear, not real risk

It would have made sense to require the students on that flight to be quarantined and schooled remotely via computer (This should be very easy given current technology). From all accounts, they were NOT infectious on Tuesday or Wednesday - even on the remote possibility that they were infected on the plane.

I agree that the nurse AND the Dallas hospital did an abysmal job here and especially the hospital should be criticized. That hospital - more than the CDC was asleep on the job. They clearly ignored the CDC as to protection in the beginning - in addition to the inexcusable sending the man home. Beyond that, it is hard to understand how they defined "voluntary quarantine" to the people involved. They needed to define what could and could not be done -- and I assume that flying would easily have made that "could not" list.

One question is whether the second nurse broke the hospital's guidelines, if they bothered to have them. If she did, no amount of sympathy for her should keep her from ultimately being fired for this. As a nurse, she likely knew the risk and the danger to the community in what she did -- and put her own needs (and wants) above the public. Even if she feared having the forfeit the airline ticket, she should NOT have flown.

[LisaL]

47. The risk is real.

She was likely symptomatic for several days before she got on the plane, not asymptomatic as originally reporter.

[FloriTexan]

4. CDC told her she could fly.

[DhhD]

32. It is my understanding that Ms. Vinson is a Registered Nurse having a B of Science Degree in Nursing

Having studied Microbiology and Hygiene in numerous college class work, she knew better in my opinion. She should have never traveled in the first place. This is like mal-practice.

[LisaL]

48. What qualifications do people working for CDC have?

Why was she allowed to fly?

[ashling]

5. Apparently she used her common sense

to call the CDC first to clear her travel plans

[Helen Borg]

9. Exactly... The problem is

the diagnostic procedure, I think. The CDC probably went down a list of symptoms and she did not seem to have them. The diagnostic tool needs to be updated.

[candelista]

13. "Diagnostic tool." :)

What "diagnostic tool" would clear someone who said, "I've just been treating an Ebola patient and now I have a fever"?

[candelista]

28. :)

She told them.

It was later confirmed that the CDC gave Vinson permission to get on the plane because she was showing no other symptoms of the virus, and her temperature didn't reach the threshold of 100.4 degrees.

"She wasn't bleeding or vomiting," Frieden said. "The level of risk around her would be extremely low, but because of the extra margin of safety, we will be contacting [all those who were on the flight]."

http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/health/2014/10/15/second-dallas-hospital-worker-diagnosed-ebola/17290677/

[Helen Borg]

42. A bad one...

[Helen Borg]

50. The danger of a "miss" in this case...

Are far more serious than the inconvenience of a false positive. But obviously, the CDC geniuses never hear of signal detection analyses to decide on policies...

[LisaL]

49. Her disease presentaion appears to be somewhat atypical.

But she was likely symptomatic (and therefore infectious) for as far back as Friday.

[wordpix]

26. I agree and it was also stupid for CDC to give the OK about the flight home

It points to a lack of effective protocol. US should have developed this at least by the time the first sick American doc arrived home from W. Africa.

But when the House keeps cutting budgets for places like NIH (and I don't know about CDC), that's what you get

[kestrel91316]

37. CDC's budget has been gutted by the Republicans.

[wordpix]

39. I know, I posted about this, also started discussion about it

VERY important point

[valerief]

15. Boy, these world leaders who never contained ebola in West Africa sure opened

a can of worms. It's a shame, because it could have been avoided had they used a few bucks instead of hoarding it for the rich.

[Demeter]

17. DUZY!

Since nothing is funny these days, I'm settling for irony. Black or dark humor, as it were, if one is still allowed to use the term.

[valerief]

18. I get pissed at all these fingerwaggers blaming the victims.

Granted, the victims may have a "it can't happen to me" attitude which adds to their poor judgment but also gives them the will to actually care for ebola patients to begin with. However, they didn't ignore ebola in West Africa. World leaders did.

[Demeter]

24. Agreed on all points.

There's enough blame to go around, just as there's probably enough virus....

[wordpix]

27. good point - CDC's budget for emergency preparedness was cut FY 2014

Last edited Thu Oct 16, 2014, 01:20 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/02/politics/van-hollen-ebola/

"There's no doubt that the deep health care cuts that we've seen have made it more difficult to respond in a rapid and comprehensive way to the Ebola outbreak," Van Hollen said.

"They're doing everything they can with the resources they have now, but the cuts they've seen in past years, they were like eroding the foundation and it clearly meant that they were starting from behind," he said. snip

The CDC saw its discretionary funding cut by $585 million from 2010 to 2014, while the NIH's budget was slashed by $446 million over the last four years.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, spelled out the impact of the cuts in dire terms during a recent hearing on Capitol Hill.

"I have to tell you honestly it's been a significant impact on us," Fauci said. "It has both in an acute and a chronic, insidious way eroded our ability to respond in the way that I and my colleagues would like to see us be able to respond to these emerging threats. And in my institute particularly, that's responsible for responding on the dime to an emerging infectious disease threat, this is particularly damaging." snip

[uppityperson]

34. + a brazillion.

[suffragette]

46. + 1,000

[Stallion]

7. Yes but Texas High School Football Must Go On!

there would be riots in the streets if games were cancelled

[rurallib]

12. that's keeping those priorities right

Welcome to DU!

[HockeyMom]

33. They didn't cancel outdoor school games with West Nile

I lived right in the area where dead crows infected, from mosquitos, with West Nile were found. I even once found a dead crow on my front lawn. Called the garbage people, not the CDC. lol My kids played soccer then. Keep them indoors and never let them outside. Of course not. We put on Skin So Soft (not even Deet) and went out. Did we ever get bitten by a mosquito? Yes, we did. Did we catch West Nile? Nope. How could that possibly be? Maybe because not every single mosquito alive in that area carried West Nile???? Lucky!!!!! Talk about an "airborn" diease. lol

You see, more today than years ago, the 24 hour media and the Net is the perfect place to spread fear. It could be YOU who will die. If the general public is so terrifed of catching and dying from the flu, this is surprising? Media wants everyone to be afraid. It sells.

[marions ghost]

38. You can manipulate people better

if you keep them in a state of anxiety.

[HockeyMom]

10. Yale not shutting down

http://www.wfsb.com/story/26802243/yale-new-haven-hospital-treating-quarantined-patient

He didn't fly into New Haven from overseas. Probably flew into JFK.

[heaven05]

11. drip, drip, drip

[RKP5637]

52. Yep, same thought here. It's still a conundrum, all sorts of ramifications. n/t

[Kali]

14. OFFS!

[Demeter]

16. Since I am a parent, and beyond the age of being able to replace my precious children

I would do exactly the same thing.

SHAME! SHAME on anyone who would try to score points off a mother's fear for her babies.

[marions ghost]

19. Yes but

how do you not communicate your own panic to your children? That may be as important as not placing them in physical danger.

BTW --WHO is scoring points? (I'm not getting that reference).

But as you indicate there are some good questions here for parents. Of course the first instinct is to protect, but can you over-protect and unintentionally instill an unreasonable sense of fear in kids? ...

[Demeter]

21. My children are of age, thank you

and they managed to reach adulthood without major psychological damage.

And who are you to accuse me of panic? or over-protection?

Or to accuse any other parent, for that matter? Show a little ego boundary, please.

[marions ghost]

25. And my words are addressed to the collective "you"

(plural)--not to you personally.

That statement has nothing to do with "ego boundaries" -- it is a general point meant for a general audience. Other readers here. It's a group conversation. I am asking parents in general--how do you create a sense of balance in a case like this, so that children are not overly concerned and scared, and grow up fearful?

The only question I asked of you personally was--what did you mean by the statement that someone is "scoring points" on parental fears--? Who is scoring points?

[Demeter]

30. YOU are

[marions ghost]

31. And how exactly

am I doing that? I did nothing but post the story about the schools closing.

What "points" am I scoring and with whom?

Speaking of boundaries, most people on this board would assume (as I did) that I cannot know you or your children and therefore can ONLY be speaking generally.

[Aristus]

35. No big deal.

It's not like anybody in those states is getting an education anyway...

[valerief]

43. Ohio and Texas are where the GOP NEVER want Dems to turn out at the polls.

You know, among crowds of people.

[marions ghost]

45. You have a point

yeah, they'll work this to their advantage if they can.

[Marrah_G]

55. OFFS

[marions ghost]

56. Well I guess

the schools can probably use a good disinfecting anyway...