Dallas nurse Nina Pham’s dog Bentley has tested negative for Ebola for the third time. He will be released from quarantine and re-united with his mom on Saturday.
Category Archives: Health Care
Perfect!
Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall calls governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie “Holiday Inn Express epidemiologists.”
Second Dallas Nurse, Cured of Ebola, Goes Home
Amber Vinson, one of the two nurses who contracted Ebola in Dallas, left Emory University Hospital in Atlanta today.
Quarantine Confusion Continues
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is releasing, Kaci Hickox, a nurse who recently returned from West Africa to her home state of Maine, where that state will decide how she should be monitored for Ebola. Returning residents of New Jersey will still be subject to a 21-day quarantine.
Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs of Staff want all troops returning from West Africa to undergo a mandatory 21-day quarantine, putting them at odds with President Obama.
Walking It Back
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo softened a bit on the quarantine for health care workers returning from West Africa. He now says they can do their 21-day quarantine at home and that they will be compensated for lost wages.
Soon after Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that New Jersey residents can also be quarantined at home (he didn’t address lost income), and that efforts would be made to get non-Jersey residents back to their own states for their quarantine. But once a person leaves New Jersey, I don’t know what jurisdiction Christie would have to impose a quarantine on them if their home state doesn’t have such a requirement.
There’s still a gap between Cuomo/Christie and the Obama Administration, but it’s been narrowed somewhat.
The New Ebola Battle
The new Ebola battle isn’t between health care workers and the disease itself, but between the federal government and the states.
The Obama Administration is pushing New Jersey governor Chris Christie and New York governor Andrew Cuomo to rescind their mandatory 21-day quarantine for anyone arriving from West Africa who has had contact with Ebola patients. Their quarantine announcement took the feds (and New York City) by surprise.
Meanwhile, Illinois and Florida have joined the quarantine.
Good luck getting Christie or Cuomo to budge. Christie is running for president and can’t be seen as caving to Obama. Cuomo is up for re-election in a week and can’t be seen as weak and indecisive, as pushed by Christie and then pulled by Obama. He may also run for president, so he has to seem tough.
Nina Pham Heading Home
Dallas nurse, Nina Pham, cured of Ebola, is heading home to Dallas from NIH in Bethesda — after a stop at the White House to meet President Obama.
Amber Vinson, the other Dallas nurse infected by Thomas Eric Duncan, has been declared free from the disease, but remains in the hospital in Atlanta.
Ebola in New York City
Dr. Craig Spencer, who returned from Guinea about ten days ago, has tested positive for Ebola and is being treated at Bellevue Hospital.
Good Ebola News for Animal Lovers
Bentley, Dallas nurse Nina Pham’s dog, has tested negative for Ebola. He will be tested again before his quarantine is up on November 1. Um, Spain, this is how you do it. I’m guessing Teresa Romero’s dog, Excalibur, would have been Ebola negative too, but we’ll never know for sure, will we Spain, because you irrationally rushed to kill him.
Pham herself has been upgraded from fair to good at NIH in Bethesda, MD. I’m looking forward to seeing her reunited with Bentley.
Good News for Two of the Americans with Ebola
Ashoka Mukpo, the NBC cameraman who is being treated in Omaha after contracting Ebola in Liberia, has now been declared Ebola-free and should leave the hospital soon.
An American doctor who had been treated at Emory in Atlanta for six weeks after catching Ebola in Sierra Leone, and had requested that he remain anonymous, has now been released.
Embattled Farmers 