CDC Bureaucrats Devoted to Bureaucracy

(Image by Henry Payne)

The on-going Ebola Crisis illustrates that the people we're relying on to protect us from the Andromeda Strain and the Zombie Virus, are led by a bunch a bureaucrats who are slavishly devoted to their bureaucracy.  

Or, put another way, the CDC is like the DMV with test tubes.   

While I don't usually like to bash folks on the front lines of any fight, I do have some questions.

When Patient Zero (Thomas Duncan) arrived at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital supposedly telling a staffer he arrived from Liberia, should this have triggered a Red Flag?

I know doctors, nurses and hospital staffers are busy, but doesn't anyone there keep up with current events?

Then there's Nurse Amber Vinson.  Maybe she should have decided not to travel, especially after her coworker Nina Pham contracted Ebola.  To her credit though, when she started running a mild fever, she contacted the CDC--several times.

Each time, she was told she was okay to travel because her temperature didn't reach the 100.4 Degree Trigger Point.

True, but herein lies the problem.

Everyone in this tale relied on "established protocols" to some debatable extent.  No one appears to have been willing to make a judgement call outside the parameters of these protocols.  Common sense hasn't been coming into play at all as this situation continues to unfold.

This slavish devotion to bureaucracy reminds me of the insane "Zero Tolerance" policies no imposed on all K-12 schools, where kids are threatened with expulsion and even a criminal record for doing things like drawing pictures of guns.

Speaking of insane, there's still the issue of not imposing travel bans, but I've already addressed that, especially since we won't be cured of the PC and Big Government Viruses anytime soon...

(Image by Rob Ariail)