I’m not a medical expert, but then neither is Barack Obama nor his Ebola czar.
So I feel at least as qualified as they to lay out a comprehensive program for protecting Americans from the West Africa epidemic.
- Effectively ban commercial airline traffic between the U.S. and West Africa until the danger of Ebola subsides.
- Prohibit the arrival in the U.S. of anyone visiting West Africa indirectly through other countries.
- Secure the Mexican border to prevent entry of any unauthorized, unscreened visitors who may be carrying Ebola or other dread illnesses such as enterovirus.
- Stop the deployment of thousands of U.S. military personnel to Liberia to prevent the spread of Ebola to more Americans.
- Get serious about protecting Americans from those within our borders who have already been exposed.
Let me expand on this last point.
Did you know the National Security Agency knows the location of everyone exposed to Ebola based on their cell-phone location? If you didn’t know that, you probably assumed it was true. NSA also knows the location of persons of interest who may have been exposed to Ebola around the infected person.
Of course, I know it won’t happen with this administration that seems more interested in protecting the Ebola virus from extinction than it does in protecting the lives and health of the American people, but the NSA should be directed to create and release a free app for iPhone and Android devices that uses NSA feeds to provide the geo-location of every person infected in the U.S.
That kind of public information would require those exposed to Ebola to self-quarantine, the only safe strategy for containing the virus – and one that has already been ignored by some, including health-care professionals.
The location boundaries of those exposed are geo-fence-enabled so if they take their phone with them out of the self-quarantine area, law enforcement and/or the Centers for Disease Control are notified. The app would let other people know when they may be within proximity of an exposed person – for instance, within 6 to 10 feet.
Wouldn’t you like to know if you were traveling on the subway that someone next to you or in a restaurant is infected, especially, say, a waitress or chef? Wouldn’t everyone? For once, the Big Brother apparatus of the NSA could actually be used for public benefit.
This information could be used to: 1) flag people from booking travel, boarding a plane, using public transportation and (2) warn you if someone suspected of having Ebola has been in the area.
To prevent deception by the exposed person, the government would require the quarantined person to complete tasks during the day every 15 minutes that only they can perform, such as sending text messages and responding in their own voice (voiceprint) to queries tied to patient health, cognitive function and response time.
The app, by the way, is more than a technological device to ensure quarantine status to protect others. It would also provide a potential lifeline to the exposed person to fast track medical assistance if his or her condition deteriorates.
With more health-care professionals getting exposed, the technology would be more helpful than ever. Think about the case of Dr. Nancy Snyderman who returned to New York after visiting West Africa. Her cameraman, Ashoka Mukpo, became infected with Ebola. A few days later she violated self-quarantine by venturing out of her house to get take-out food from a restaurant.
The citizens of New York and Americans nationwide deserve to know exactly where Ebola-exposed people are and have been. There is a delayed strain of Ebola that could take up to 42 days to incubate. Think of the number of people who could be infected.
Ebola is a matter of life and death. Our national health policy cannot rely simply on the good intentions of anyone who is exposed – even health-care professionals.
Even more importantly, the epidemically correct policies of Barack Obama’s administration need to be scrapped altogether because the primary duty of the federal government is to safeguard the health and safety of the American people.
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].
|
