What is it really worth to you, to stay safe from ebola?
You are the boyfriend of a labtech who has handled one blood test that tested positive last week. Should you cancel the cruise that you saved up for for the last five years, and that will be the only vacation that you will have this year, which you have already requested and which your employer will not reschedule?
I am sure that everyone here on DailyKos would cancel their vacation gladly, because this is DailyKos, where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average". But, is everyone in this nation willing to make that sacrifice? Are we willing to risk our health and safety on a stranger's generosity?
Oh, by the way, you have a slight headache -- not serious.
More below the wiggly squiggly..
We have not made the case to people why they should come forward if they may have had possible contact. We expect them to cancel their cruise ship plans, or cancel their air travel plans if they may have had contact with ebola. But, let's face it. What do they get out of it? Either they are sick or they are not sick, and cancelling their travel plans won't change that either way. Yes, I know, they are supposed to do it out of the goodness of their hearts, because that's what motivates people. There's an old saying. "Money makes the world go around".
People have been accused of being selfish for continuing to go about their daily lives, You could turn that around and say that we are being selfish by asking people to disrupt their daily lives when there is no benefit in it to them. It is, after all, the definition of selfishness to demand service from another which benefits you and not them, especially for no compensation.
I haven't heard a single word explaining how people will be compensated beyond the good feeling of their service to manking, if they have to put their lives on hold for 21 days in order for the purpose of ensuring the public health, to cancel their travel plans, to put themselves into lockdown. But, more than that, it's going to cost them. Will their cruise ship tickets be refunded? Will their plane tickets be fully refunded? Will their vacation time be refunded? Will they be paid when they can't report to work, which may be with the public? Some people aren't.
Protecting mankind is certainly noble, but it's hard to spend in the grocery store, and putting your life on hold for 21 days, cancelling your vacation, burning your travel tickets, is EXPENSIVE. We want them to make a sacrifice for us, but to all appearances, we seem to expect them to do it at their own expense. It's not surprising that they might hesitate, after the spectacle of an entire family locked into an apartment with contaminated linens for days, for the crime of having being related to someone who had ebola. One thing I wondered when I saw that was, "How are they paying their bills?" In all that I have read about that incident, what I haven't read is how they got emergency financial assistance or compensation of any kind for their service to mankind. Someone might have bought them some groceries or made sure they weren't kicked out of their room, but that was just because we didn't want to figure out where else to put them. Exactly how long did that assistance last and what happened to them afterwards? My impression is that it lasted for just as long as they remained a perceived risk, and then we dropped them like a hot potato. If more was done for them, there hasn't been much said publicly on the subject that I have seen. I realize that service to mankind is something we think people should strive for, but there are different views on the subject. Do we want to risk our future on the gamble that everyone is as eager as we think they should be to make sacrifices for the common good? Or, do we want to offer some other motivation for them, in case the nobility of sacrifice doesn't do it for them.
If it is really important to us, then shouldn't we be willing to compensate those individuals who are paying the personal cost to help us remain safe from this contagion? And, if it is worth something to us, then isn't it time to say something publicly to let people know they aren't going to be left high and dry?
And, if we aren't willing to put our money where our mouth is, is it any wonder that people who have had contact with ebola place the exactly the same value on concerns over quarantine as our society at large does? That would be "zero".