>> "You can also just pop and Ibuprofen and lie your way through"
Why would anyone do that?
Why would anyone do that?
And having read an article about Eric Duncan in the German "Stern" about how his case had been mis-handled by the U.S. agencies, I cannot blame anyone trying to take it into his own hands, even if I can see why this could be even more irresponsible.
Article, in German: http://www.stern.de/gesundheit/thomas-eric-duncan-erster-ebo...
On the one hand, a highly fatal disease and typical, systemic mishandling. On the other, an indication that travelling to the U.S. won't save you.
I have no evidence that the latter message was deliberately manufactured (implying all sorts of terrible things). But I'm certain there were and are people in positions of authority thinking about this.
I was thinking about that the other day; taking the need for a visa into account, it's unlikely the deceased patient in Texas traveled to the U.S. in response to exposure.
He helped a neighbor thought to be suffering complications from pregnancy -- she was in her 7th month -- getting a cab and perhaps also accompanying her to the hospital or care center; I don't recall the details on the latter part.
The general population will not be making a rush over, on airplanes. But a subset who is eligible and capable might.
Personally, from the reporting, it seems to me that the man in Texas was a good samaritan and deserving of whatever help the U.S. might be able to provide. I further consider the threatened prosecution (by Liberia, and now I read perhaps also by others) not only unkind but counter-productive -- in general, I gather, such actions force further underground and prompt people to hide potentially threatening symptoms and conditions.
Measures and countermeasures were both used back in the days of Ellis Island.
In the modern world, you probably need a different game theory.