Quarantine, Shmarantine!
Why Closing Off Wuhan and Placing People in Quarantines Just Doesn’t Work
A quick note: I originally wrote this blog post on October 27, 2014, responding to the fear about people coming back from West Africa from helping with the Ebola epidemic. Sadly, it is still relevant as Chinese authorities have placed a city of 11 million people under quarantine due to the Wuhan virus (coronavirus) epidemic.
A few weeks ago, I told you the different reasons why I believe that quarantine doesn’t work. My main argument boils down to the fact that human beings can think and plan and act when they feel that they are in danger. Being placed in an isolated area (e.g. a tent outside a hospital) and not allowed to see friends and family makes us feel in danger. Being told by the governor of a state in the United States that you are “obviously ill” makes you feel in danger. Seeing incompetence and panic over Ebola everywhere around you makes you feel in danger.
So you try to run.
Nurse Kaci Hickox was taken from the airport in Newark, NJ, to a tent outside a hospital and placed there until further notice because an elected politician said so. She didn’t have a fever. She wasn’t feeling ill. She would test negative for Ebola infection. Yet the government of that state saw it necessary to throw her…
