Thanks, BLD ... I'm not panicking. Just researching and fact-checking.
But I sure do wish we had you pilots in charge of a lot more stuff than planes....like big pharma, etc..... I'd feel a lot safer.
What I should have noted is that we here in the US have been told that the US Embassy in Liberia stopped issuing visitors visas (tourists and business) to the US a couple of months ago.(I don't recall what, if anything, was said about Sierra Leone and Guinea, or about student visas.) So, what I found out yesterday seems to show that what we've been told isn't true. (I'm also quite open to believing that this fellow didn't tell me the truth, as Carleeta noted some "holes" in the previous information he'd given me.
Question -- If this disease has at least a 21 day incubation period, and people do not necessarily show any symptoms for the first week or two, how can you, as the captain of the plane, or any of your crew, detect the illness and prevent boarding? You professionals seem to be the main line of detection and protection for the rest of us.
It has has mutated significantly, and isn't necessarily as readily detectable as it was, for example with Patrick Sawyer. The early symptoms, as reported in some of the European and Canadian press, may no longer include fever, vomiting, skin boils, bleeding. The Canadian equivalent of our CDC said a couple of weeks ago that it's highly probably that the disease is airborne, and even if not airborne, it is aerosolized via sneezing, coughing, nose blowing, etc.
If this is true, then it seems to me that unless the person has been quarantined for the full 21 days, or a bit longer, immediately prior to boarding the plane to travel out of those countries, there is no way to know if he/she is coming here sick or not. We have no quarantine or de-planning mechanisms in place here, except for a possible temperature check (Carleeta may have told us that)as far as I've been able to determine. Supposedly there are pre boarding screenings being done at Roberts Airport, but I've seem photos of the set-up, and it doesn't encourage confidence.
This fellow whose son came here told me that he wasn't checked (no temperature taken, etc) pre-boarding in Monrovia or upon deplaning here at Dulles Airport. I didn't ask about his European change of planes. (Again, there's no way of knowing if he was telling me the truth.)
I'm simply noting what seems to be large discrepancies between what we here in the US are being told by the officials, and what's really happening. Discrepancies bother me...as a lawyer, I was trained to look carefully for them ...
And, I'll be the first to admit that I've become extremely distrustful of government and medical "authorities", given the discrepancies I personally encountered, uh, no ... experienced ... between what the "officials" told me about Cymbalta and the reality of the drug. Let's just say my former implicit trust that they know what they're doing and have my best interests in mind is in the negative range.