By Daisy Luther
Originally published at The Daily Sheeple
After nearly a week of Ebola-free headlines, it looks like it’s back.
A Doctors Without Borders physician just returned to New York City after treating patients in Guinea. He brought the deadly virus home with him.
Dr. Craig Spencer, aged 33, returned to the US 10 days ago. He began to show symptoms on Wednesday and was put in isolation at Bellevue Hospital this morning.
In a statement, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital said the doctor was “a dedicated humanitarian” who went to “an area of medical crisis to help a desperately underserved population.”
“He is a committed and responsible physician who always puts his patients first,” the hospital statement said. “He has not been to work at our hospital and has not seen any patients at our hospital since his return from overseas.”The CDC had people packing up to go to New York on Thursday, and a specimen from the physician was to be sent to Atlanta for testing, an official familiar with the situation told CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen.
Investigators took the case seriously from the outset because it appeared the doctor didn’t quarantine himself following his return, (emphasis ours) the law enforcement official said. The doctor traveled to Brooklyn and then back to Manhattan on Wednesday night, the official said.
In a statement Thursday, Doctors Without Borders confirmed that the physician recently returned from West Africa and was “engaged in regular health monitoring.” The doctor contacted Doctors Without Borders Thursday to report a fever, the statement said.
The law enforcement official said the doctor was out in public. Authorities also quarantined his girlfriend, with whom he was spending time since his return from Africa.
The doctor began feeling sluggish a couple of days ago, but it wasn’t until Thursday, when he developed 103-degree fever, that he contacted Doctors Without Borders, authorities said. (source)
The New York Times reported that Dr. Spencer had been out bowling and using public transit on Wednesday night, only hours before his Thursday morning hospital admission.
If it’s any consolation, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “We want to state at the outset there is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed.”
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Cities are a bad place to be in a pandemic. Especially NYC. Many of my ancestors in the early 1800s died of smallpox, dysentery and other diseases that ran rampant.
This may be true, but the water was contaminated, the conditions for many were terrible, and they still used outhouses. It wasn’t vaccines that improved our health. It was better food, water, housing, and basic hygiene.
Today, we are in retrograde. Our food and water is contaminated by toxins, and our basic hygiene is being compromised from toxins as well.
I have family going back three generation that lived in the city; Queens is one of the five boroughs. Some of the diseases that my relatives had were TB, polio, diphtheria, dropsy (renal problems?), lock jaw, as well as the common childhood diseases. No one died of the Spanish Flu. My maternal grandmother died in ’26 from TB, and my great grandfather outlived all his brothers and sisters who all died by their 20’s. He lived until 83yrs.
For those who love NYC, there is a lot to offer. I’ll pass, thank you. It is too dirty, noisy, congested, and expensive. I only visit upon rare occasions. It has been a good number of years.
If you want a good chuckle: We had visitors who wanted to visit NYC. We took them there. We were really surprised how few people were around. We took the boat tour, saw Times Square (The naked cowboy is still there), and a number of other places (Rockefeller Plaza?). Still fewer people than normal. I would have preferred some exhibits and museums, but alas, that is not why we were there. When we came home we found out that NYC was on an Orange Alert! Ha! You can make some extrapolations from this for sure.
While congested areas certainly may increase the spread disease, most people do not live so isolated that people contact is eliminated. Work on your immune system. Remember the Orange Alert.
Only time I’ve ever been to NYC was the week leading up to the first anniversary of 9/11. I was in the process of driving across the country to live in CO with friends. One of those friends was traveling with me and she wanted to stay in NYC for a week because that’s where she’s from, and she was in view of the tragedy from her own office windows there the year before. She lost friends that day and wanted to remember them on the anniversary.
I myself was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people, and noise and dirt. I coughed the whole time I was there from the air pollution (which she blamed on New Jersey). I also remember what it was like to be trapped in a tunnel for over an hour, because we were inside it on our way to a baseball game, because Bush was there and he wanted to see Ground Zero. (I had already really disliked him. Couple that with my full bladder and my claustrophobia, and I *really* disliked him after that.)
I would never go back there.
Go Ahead, blame Jersey.:)) My son-in-law tells me that New Jersey is Land of the Fee, Home of the Slave. There is a lot not to like about the state, but I am not so certain it is causing all of the pollution. There are three airports in the area: LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark.
Jersey Girls don’t pump gas!:))
My Cousin (my first cousin’s first born) was a NYC Sargent on 911. He was directing body part collecting, if I remember correctly. He now has skin cancer.
We did a hop-skip-and-jump over to Jersey for a day, too, so she could say hi to her parents.
I agree with you that the pollution probably had more to do with the airports. (Whenever I went back to MA to visit, the moment I stepped out of Logan, my sinuses battened down the hatches.)
My sympathies to your cousin. 🙁 An awful day, an awful job to have to do, and definitely an awful consequence. I hope he’s able to get successful treatment for his cancer.
I’m glad my father wasn’t in law enforcement in NYC. Doing that work here in MA was bad enough. He’s retired now. We finally get holidays where he’s not called out to crime scenes and dead bodies. Yay! (People seem to love to commit suicide right during Christmas dinner.)
Surprisingly accurate comment, Me.
Hat tip to you.
Funny that you mention dropsy. I’ve seen it on a few genealogical records and have yet to figure it out to a modern day equivalent.
I’ve been to NYC once. Everyone walked and talked fast and seemed quite stressed. I dread calling there because I have been yelled at and hung up on the past three times, usually before I get 20 words spoken.
Things should get interesting.
I wonder if he had his own bowling shoes, or if he borrowed some from the bowling establishment?
If he borrowed them, his shoes likely got sweaty…. and that sweat may have the virus in it.
You’re too much!
🙂 I can be. But it’s a valid concern in this case. I’m just glad The Gutter (the bowling place) decided to close last night and go through a very thorough cleaning today.
NYC has an estimated 70 million rats. Better hope every single one of them stays healthy!